What else can we inherit?

What else can we inherit?

What else can we teach?
when books are left to gather dust
ancestral tales broken,
the wisdom of the ancestors is considered obsolete
like roots pulled out of the ground?

What else can we inherit?
when the forest loses its language
twigs lost the story
and the river no longer recognizes children
who used to gain wisdom from its shores?

What else can we plant?
if character is built without role models
without a story about the trees
who is willing to break a branch so the wind can pass
or elephants who maintain the balance of the forest
without ever demanding anything in return?

What else can we do?
when the myths of forest guards are ridiculed
and human hands
quicker to cut down
from reading the signs of rain?

What else do we want to protect?
if this mother earth
no longer want to call us
as his son?

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Ask at Root

Our ancestors once knocked on the earth’s door
through restless roots:
“Children, what are you reading
to forget the sound of the trees?”

closed mountains,
holding back the boiling sadness.
The river bends down,
bringing a stream of sad news
from the forest silenced the sound of saws.

And we are humans
who is said to be of noble character,
walk while closing your eyes
didn’t read the signs.

Our ancestors once asked
“Where do you hide that wisdom?
These myths are not just a legacy of fairy tales
so that humans stop considering trees
as a lifeless pile of wood?”

If the forest falls,
if the ground breaks,
if the storm rages,
that’s nature keeping promises
which we never fulfilled.

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What We Read Too Late

We read disaster
on the last page:
Flash floods
who dragged those names
without having time to say goodbye.

We read
on tree bodies
who lies without a tombstone,
but we still don’t want to open it
first page
about the cause of the error.

Our ancestors wrote
about simple lessons:
“Never be greedy,
or always asking for more.”
But that book
never included in the school curriculum.

The forest is calling
in his broken voice:
“Son, learn from us.
Even those who stand upright can fall
if you guys start playing around
with natural sin.”

And we are still busy asking,
whose fault is it, even though the sentence is the clearest
is: save the forest, save people.

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Where is the House of Wisdom?

In the past,
wisdom lives in the arms of our grandmothers
who pounds rice while giving orders
so that we don’t offend
forest guardian spirit.

In the past,
life wisdom in grandfather’s stories
about the birds
that maintains the boundaries between
take enough,
leave it for someone else.

Now,
wisdom is lost
between chatty ads
bombarding our ears on the screen
louder than the voices of the past.

And we ask:
where is the house of wisdom?
hopefully it will come back through books,
in education classes,
which educates the whole person
not only his mind, but also his heart.

The forest is waiting,
shivering in a blanket of mist.
He wants to know:
whether humans will come home
or keeps disappearing
in the darkness of his own greed?

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We Can’t Avoid It

What’s the point of having character?
if it stops at the lips
not down to earth
be the hand that replants?

What’s the point of being interested in reading?
if the books are closed
before arriving
in the chapter on responsibility?

What is the use of education
if he teaches formulas
but forget to teach compassion
on land that sustains life?

What use are we
call themselves a great nation
only if you have a forest that is not too big
unable to care for us?

Our ancestors once said:
“Earth is not an inheritance, but a deposit.
Never return it
injured.”

Magetan, 5-6 December 2025

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Writer: Fileski Walidha Tanjung is a poet and writer born in Madiun 1988. Actively writing poetry, essays and short stories in various national media.