Sesakata is an alternative art platform for those who wish to share and enjoy stories of daily life through writing and painting. The pair started the account in July 2018. The account’s name, Sesakata, is a play on words. Sesak can both mean "dense" and "tightness in the chest", while kata is simply "words".

The two women aim to help express people's everyday anxiety in the form of handwritten poetry decorated with distinctive touches of abstract brushstrokes.

Sesakata's journey began at a time when Ajeng started to feel anxious about life. Rather than drowning herself in anxiety, she and her artsy friend Dinda tried to forge those concerns into a work of art that others could enjoy.

"It started with a piece of paper written in pencil and scribbled with a brush. We uploaded some of the scribbles on Instagram, and beyond our expectations, it turned out that our friends liked the writing," explained the pair.

The writings published on Sesakata's account make reference to many renowned poets. One of them is Morgan Harper Nichols, an American poet. Another poetry account, Puisi Senja, is also inspired by local poets such as Theoresia Rumthe and Weslly Johannes. "They [Theoresia and Weslly] have beautiful diction and I love their work. And I learned a lot of new vocabulary from their poems," said Nia, the woman behind the account.

Sesakata has gained 217,000 followers on Instagram. The account engages its audience by allowing them to send their own stories through the Instagram questions box, comments or direct messages. "We do believe that everyone has their own anxiety and something to express, so they can make Sesakata their understanding friend," said the team.

One of Sesakata's followers is Sartika Lestari, a 20-year-old digital marketing specialist in the IT industry living in Bogor.

"I previously followed @suratdarisesakata and know @sesakata is created by the unspoken words from others, and it impresses me. I'm feeling represented and I can tell some story without knowing who the people behind @sesakata are without worry," she said.

Sartika believes that poetry, as a trend, is on the rise. She argued that people were drawn to it because the written word better described many things than the spoken. Writing down one's thoughts is also a method of stress relief for some people.

She was inspired to join in with the trend to help represent people's unspoken thoughts using her own writing.

Defining poetry

Some people say these works are not genuine poetry, as they write phrases without traditional figurative language and rhyme and use directly quoted spoken words instead.

Gatekeeping aside, Ajeng and Dinda do not refer to themselves as poets or influencers. Some of their followers call them "artists", but they believe that label does not represent them.

"Some people call us artists and we are so glad about that, but honestly, we think we are just ordinary people who express our feelings through writing and painting. We hope we can entertain and influence people to express their feelings and love themselves," said Ajeng and Lara.

Jein Setiyanto Hendri, the person behind @setiyantohendri, an art account with 353,000 followers, said he prefers to be referred to as a writer or author.

Jein was also uncertain when asked whether his writings could be defined as poetry or not. "I think my writings cannot be categorized as poetry, in my opinion, maybe rather prose, but I prefer to call my account a quotes account rather than a poetry account. Although, there are also those who say that my writings — both on this account and in my first book — contain poetry."

"As far as I know, poems require aesthetics of words, allegory and figures of speech. So, I believe not everyone can understand their meaning just by reading them once, and this is even truer for ordinary people who have no literary background or interest in literature. I myself have a hard time interpreting the meaning of a poem, so I write something that can be directly understood by everyone."

Naya, a translator and an English literature graduate who has been writing and reading poetry since she was a child, commented that the trend went back years.

"I think this wave of online platforms, especially for poetry, first came up on Twitter many years ago (around 2012-2014). People got creative with the limit of 140 characters so they came up with the idea of mini poetry. It was the beginning of many selebtwit [Twitter celebrities] such as @benzbara, @fiksimini and @zarryhendrik."

Naya stands with these writers, saying that what they write should also be considered poetry: "Not all those accounts use direct words, some of those use indirect words with many meanings, pragmatically. If the reason someone said it is too short, just look up haiku poetry. Haiku usually consists of three phrases."

The future of the poetry industry

There is an industry in this trend, as all of these works bring in cash. Sesakata had their work transformed into a book and an art exhibition. Jein's posts were adapted into a book and a podcast, while Puisi Senja has been adapted into a YouTube channel, a podcast and a fiction novel.

But these people still have more dreams to reach. They all hope to grow bigger and continue to serve as a healing space for their readers. Sesakata, for example, is hoping to build a collaboration space so that they can meet their followers, Teman Kata, and create a community for poetry lovers and writers to continue to preserve the art of writing and reading poetry in Indonesia.

The pandemic might have slowed down their dream, but they carried on regardless. With those thoughts in mind, Jein wrapped up the interview with one final quote addressed to all the people who have been struggling during these troubled times: "Bisa sampai di titik ini, di tengah-tengah masa yang sulit adalah pekerjaan orang-orang yang kuat" (Getting to this point, amid difficult times, is the labor of the strong).

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