A Neighbourhood Built on Wisdom by Fechia Ditama

A poem about learning to love a place one did not choose to live in.

First published in Pandan Weekly in January 2025.

​From the author:

For me, writing this poem was a form of catharsis. There are times we will end up in places that were not part of our plan, written in by other forces in our lives with permanent ink. Learning to enjoy, much less love, my destination with that knowledge took time, time that I now treasure and would not replace with anything since I have acquainted myself with this city on my own terms. Food was one way I had done that, along with inside jokes about my university campus. I hope the readers, wherever they are and whoever they may be, love their current locations. If they are where they are due to other forces in their lives, they need only a little patience. It is only a matter of time before they encounter a reason to know and love their locations better.

Thank you to Stephanie for hosting the workshop, and the lovely writers I had been able to meet thanks to SEA Lit Circle. Thank you to my workshopmates for being patient and sending me suggestions even when the workshop ran out of time.

Listen to the author read her work:

Fechia Ditama (she/her) is a wanderer with one purpose: to learn as much as she can before she reaches her final destination. Born and raised in Indonesia, she started writing poetry at the age of seventeen. When Fechia is not writing or worrying about her studies, she can be found pursuing her amateur interests in music. She writes about the memorable things she sees, the magnificent and the mundane.

Instagram: @stormiewriting

Thank you for reading!

Pandan Weekly is a bi-annual zine and weekly email series produced by SEA Lit Circle, a community of writers and readers from Southeast Asia and the diaspora. At SEA Lit Circle, we inspire each other to write fresh, compelling work that’s true to ourselves, and we encourage each other to read and be more open to new works, stories, and perspectives within and beyond the region.

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