Blocking Light After Light

Layers of light block my way

Billions of glares come to blind me

after one fades away

The sun shines brightly

illuminating heaven and earth,

all live and dead creatures,

and those which fly and roam the sky

or they which creep and crawl

or dive and swim.

They all blind me.

I close my eyes

Perchance by seeing nothing

I can penetrate the layers of light

but I just can't do it.

Perhaps I myself am saturated with glares

But I want light and just light

Oh, the Mightiest Light,

who is barricaded by lights,

enlighten me

enable me to merge

into Your lights

Or turn me into a flash of radiance

so that I can swim in Your lights

to reach You

By A. Mustofa Bisri

Translated from Tadarus by TIS

Psalm 1996

Ya Allah Ya Tuhan*

Oh Ultimate Mystery,

You Who dwells in the secrets

of Your Omnipotence and Your All-existence,

of Your Omniscience and Your Omnipresence,

Who cruises through my innerness

and fills and empties

and so makes me completely me

a shareholder in Your secrets,

Let Your plan be implemented.

Uplift me when I am broken,

Truss my joys,

Tame my anxieties,

Repair the sores in my hope.

Lead me out of this darkness,

Shine light on my hidden way,

Bend my glances

and force me to zoom in on You.

Let me discover the support

from others who wake up on the way.

Attend us in our searches

Deliver us from our queries

and stay by us in our eternity.

Amen

* Oh God

By Idris Kyrwajy

The writer is a Belgian-born Indonesian poet. His collection of poems, Mata Hari Mata Hari (1988), was published in the Netherlands under the pseudonym Driss Sesindo in Dutch and Indonesian language versions.