by Okky Madasari
What is God? What is poetry?
Spirituality has been a main topic for poetry across Nusantara for centuries. Since the beginning of Malay poetry in the 16th century through the works of Sufi poet, Hamzah Fansuri, to the pioneer of Indonesia’s modern poetry, Chairil Anwar, in the mid 20th century, to today’s generation, and from syair generation to TikTok generation, poetry has been a way to find the meaning of God and spirituality.
Between Hamzah Fansuri in the 16th century and Amir Hamzah in the beginning of the 20th century Sufi poet, poetry is medium of worshiping God — to express the love and longing for God, to surrender and to acknowledge the greatness of God. While Sufism itself is way to define God in more humanistic way, it is undoubtedly that Sufi poets see God as the greatest supranatural being, the creator and the source of everything.
The phrase God is Within Me, popularised by sufist ulama, is an expression to highlight the close relationship between human being and God, and that God is existing in every human’s heart and consciousness, not that human being is equal to God as many opponents and critics of sufi would like to interpret it.
Hamzah Fansuri’s syairs always worship God and call on people to follow God both in literal and metaphor expression. In every syair he uses words or sentences from Quran or Hadith or Arabic language in general. His clear and literal expression, for example shown in:
Aho, all of us named Islam
Yogya, follow Hadits and Kalam
Because words of Allah, garden inside
Saying from God without grave
Aho all of us named human
Don’t be hesitant to learn Qur’an
Because there all of God’s words
Saying everything in there
This kind of expression is also preserved in Amir Hamzah’s poetry, “Because of You”:
I am a puppet, you are a puppet,
To please the puppeteer as he runs through his song;
We glance at each other, out on the open screen,
For as long as the one melody lasts.
‘Other bright-coloured dolls take their turn;
You and I are laid in our box.
I am a puppet, you are a puppet,
To please the puppeteer running out his rhymes.’
Only until Chairil Anwar came to prominence, the call to express anger to God appears on Indonesia’s poems. Nevertheless, for Chairil, God is still the creator and the greatest super natural being. For this, He should answer all human being’s questions. Chairil expresses his anger and frustration on this poem entitle At The Mosque:
I shouted at Him
Until He came
We met face to face.
Afterwards He burned in my breast.
All my strength struggles to extinguish Him
My body, which won’t be driven, is naked with sweat
This room
Is the arena where we fight
Destroying each other
One hurling insults, the other gone mad.
For Rendra, God is nothing but humanity. He criticise all the after life narrative, clearly stating that what is happening on earth is more important than in utopian heaven. It shows in his poem, Bersatulah Pelacur-Pelacur Kota Jakarta:
The leader’s revolution
was a revolution of gods.
They fought for heaven
and not for this earth.
A revolution by gods
has never produced
more jobs
for the ordinary people
You are a part of the proletariat
they created.
Rendra also questions the definition of sin in his poem Nyanyian Angsa:
‘You were led into sin’
‘Not led. But I have sinned greatly’
‘You were deceived by the devil’
‘No, I was forced by poverty.
And my failure to find a job.
‘By St Peter!’
‘By St Peter! Father, listen to me
I don’t need to know why I sinned
I realize my life has been a failure
My soul is confused
And I am going to die
But I am terribly afraid
I need God or whatever
to befriend me’
Today’s Generation Saves God
Today’s generation who live with advanced technology giving them access to various ideas, readings, and conversations, certainly have more diverse interpretation on God compare to previous generations. It is a generation who are familiar with the postmodernism ideas, reading Karl Marx without fear, and at the same time, have been invaded by visual and video all the day through their mobile phone.
To understand the way younger generation utilising poetry to express its spirituality, I have studied a number of poems published by Omong-Omong Media and selected several of them that portray some characteristic of how the young poets redefine God.
The existence of social media has been an inspiration and intervening factor in how they define God. For Muhammad Akmal Firmansyah, he genuinely found the phrase of Ketuhanan yang Mahadaring (The Almighty Online God) and Iman Virtual (Virtual Faith).
Ketuhanan yang Mahadaring
di sana
umkm-umkm
memasang iklan
super mahal
di berbagai kanal
di sini
buruh-buruh digital
dipaksa produktif
sampai tak bisa piknik
seperti media digital yang
melempar clickbait
demi penuhi fee per klik
ingin kuberkata:
hiduplah Indonesia Maya!
This poem by Muhammad Akmal Firmansyah represents a young generation’s feeling of being ruled by a kind of supernatural being – much like the previous concept of God – in various aspects of life. Such a God now is technology, digital world and social media (daring = online). But digitalism and social media is also evil supernatural being. It shows in Iman Virtual:
Iman Virtual
orang-orang berdoa di snapgram
perjuangkan birahi di dating apps
mencari fwb, mencari cinta satu malam
menulis keluh kesah di twitter
sampai keblinger dan
kebersihan sebagian dari estetik
yang kukotori lewat
status whatsappku yang burik
: o tuhan
aku berlindung kepadamu
dari godaan dunia maya
yang penuh tipu daya
Meanwhile, a poem by Nurul Lathifah represents her fear of God, equaling it to death that has to be avoided:
Aku menyusun pelukmu dan meletakkannya pada pintu kamar tidurku serupa mantra yang mengusir setan-setan di dalam kepalaku.
Tapi kepalaku adalah kriminal yang tidak seharusnya dibiarkan sendiri.
Aku berdiri di depan kaca dan menatap cinta dan nyala untuk hidup sedetik lagi.
Hingga detik menjadi menit.
Hingga menit menjadi jam.
Jam menjadi hari.
Hari menjadi minggu.
Minggu menjadi bulan.
Bulan menjadi tahun.
Tahun menjadi aku
yang belum bertemu Tuhan.
God is also a disappointment. It reflects in poem by Inas Pramoda. While he seems to believe in God, he and life he gives to human beings are just a disappointment
aku tidak ingin hidup terlalu lama
dan kamu tidak ingin mati terlalu cepat
kita berdebat panjang tentang mana yang lebih terkutuk di antara keduanya
Tuhan mungkin tertawa—mengapa Ia tertawa jika Ia hidup selamanya?
apakah Tuhan pernah kecewa walau sekali saja?
sekali-kali kita berdua memikirkan hal itu hingga ketiduran di atas meja
dan buku-buku yang masih terbuka, dan gelas-gelas yang belum habis, dan waktu yang tak pernah sama
saat terbangun pertama kali, kita memastikan jantung masing-masing masih tetap berdetak
suatu saat, siapa pun yang masih hidup di antara kita berdua akan mengenang yang mati
“atau melupakannya,” katamu, “hidup adalah jebakan belaka, kita berkali-kali mencoba menghindarinya.”
It is also interesting, despite all cynicism, how deep inside they still have hope in God. A poem by Angga Pratama shows hypocrisy about God among current generation. As much as they want to get rid of God, in a time of fear, they will always want to return to him.
Ateisme Tanggung
Aku duduk bersama pikiran
Malam kemarin selesai baca Marx
Dalam hati bangga kunyatakan:
“demi otak yang dialektis, aku ateis!”
Di luar, hujan dan petir memadu kasih
Suasana kamar begitu lembab
Hawa dingin menusuk perih
Aku merinding disinari gelap
Celah ventilasi terlihat aneh
Aku curiga, kutatap saksama
Sudut demi sudut, seluruhnya
Dengan kecepatan suara
Petir menyambar tiba-tiba
Dan aku sontak berteriak:
“lindungi aku ya Tuhan!”
A poem by Adib Arkan shows optimism and hope despite all problems he is in, refusing to just blame God although it’s clear he recognizes its presence
Staring at the ceiling,
clearly i heard your question:
“Why god let me do this?
He let me fall again and again.”
But it wasn’t god, it was you,
and tomorrow will come in a minute.
I hope you’ll make it through.
Whatever happens, be tough.
And never seek solace from what could kill you.
God is Not Dead
Learning from such poems published by Omong-Omong Media, I can see there are five characteristics on how z generation or internet generation define God or Gods. First, they see God or Gods in every thing. For them, there is not a single definition or imagination of God. Second, for them, God is a reflection of not only humanity, love, hope but also fear and death. Third, God is a feeling in the sense that for them it matters when they feel the presence of God. Fourth, while most of ulamas and preachers believe that God is the answer, the young poets see it as a question rather than an answer. Lastly, poetry is a seeking process to find their our own version of God or Gods.
God is clearly neither dead nor disappeared from today’s poetry. The younger generation just found the new way in finding and seeing God. For this generation, God is not merely the greatest being, the creator, or the one they should worship.
*This writing is part of Okky Madasari’s lecture for Poetry Festival Singapore, 31 July 2022