5 minutes of midnight
5000 midnights of missing your moon
may your return be soon
you crawled like a gecko
all over my surface
and you kept on nodding and running
a crowd of summerlovers is heading south
the winter has beached north
airport is breath-short, what’s a goodbye worth?
wherever you go, think of me
like a plane that ever returns
like a bird, like a thought, like seasons and the night.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Happy new year and best wishes to you and yours for health, happiness, peace & prosperity in 2015!
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Really fantastic poetry, I am not sure if you got my tweet concerning your collection of poetry, Soft was this rain my favourite version of the collection, Mmiri A Zoro Nwayo Nawayo. I am currently looking to enter a national competition and would like to use one of your poems if that is okay with you. It is a translation competition but you have kindly already done that for me – thank you! I would like to change something about perhaps the form and was wondering whether you had a poem from the collection in mind that would be good to work. Being from an Igbo background this is a particularly close to my heart and the poetry is very good, an enjoyable read. I would really appreciate a response if possible. Many thanks in advance.
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My goodness! I completely missed this! I am truly sorry. I went off blogging for a while, to rest and refresh the inner wellspring, and was not following the updates.
I hope it is not yet too late! Yes, please make use of the poem for the competition or any other project where you feel it might have relevance, and simply let me know.
I am so deeply grateful for your feedback! I am touched that the works touch you. And doubly moved at the fact that you are one of those Africans or people of African origin who understand the value of capturing our thoughts and intuitions in our native languages and thus keeping these alive and growing.
My poems and writings in the Igbo tongue are amongst the dearest to me of everything I do!
Thank you so very much – and please keep me informed and/or stay in touch.
All the best to you.
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