A DEEPER SURVIVAL

The more the world is flooded with A.I.,
the more I hunger for natural things -
Natural images honest to the human eye,
a genuine human voice that sings -
Content that springs from the human “I”,
what the original human spirit brings -
The truth’s rough edges, not a smooth lie,
the exertion that with evolution swings -
The more the world is overwritten by A.I.,
the more I gravitate towards natural things.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

DISTANCE HAPPILY

Family finally -
Friendship verily -
Distance happily -
Thought is vicinity
Feeling is duplicity
Emotion is complicity
Intuition is veracity.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

WHAT WE REALLY SEE

Nobody ever walks down the street,
Everybody always walks through their own world.
Nobody ever looks at the world,
Everybody always looks at an image in their mind.

Nobody lives outside
Everybody lives inside
Inside their own head, inside their own heart
Until you see what a person is looking at
In the core of their being
You’ll never know what they are seeing
When they are looking at you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

HUMAN GUITAR

A window into another world you are
Smaller than a moon you are a star
Nearer than proximity you feel from afar
Sealed to others my heart to you is ajar
You’ve got a ticket I’ve got a fast car
I am the wound you are the tender scar
Strumming my pain fingering my guitar.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

LIKE A FLOWER THINKS OF THE SUN

Think of forgiveness
Like a flower thinks of the sun
With gratitude nonetheless
For a story time once upon
For pain is the power to bless
Forevermore for if ever done
Let anguish be my shorn redress
Torn away, for Done! is foregone
Revenge and mercy both make a mess
But mercy makes the earthier one.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

CRAVINGS

When they‘re done with you
They hate you
For showing them their darker side
And showing them how much they love it.

Never talk to them in the open
Only in secret
That‘s when they love you
That‘s where they crave it.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

QUENCH YOUR THIRST

Layers of selves.
Slivers of lives.
Slices of shells.
Depths of dives.
How many sides make a human?
How many hides cloak a human heart? They say we meet to part – but to which part?
Which of our many parts?
Every moment departs.
Beauty is just one feature in an ugly creature.
It is deeper than second nature.
It is the first.
Only your first nature will quench your thirst.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
QUENCH YOUR THIRST
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(An afternoon / evening in Hamburg)

Music: FIRST NATURE by Che Chidi Chukwumerije

WALKING WOUNDS

We are all walking wounds
Chimeras and Illusions trigger us
And then we fall into a deep hole
Lashing out at shadows that don‘t exist
And hurting real people who never hurt us
And who don’t know why we‘re hurting them
Inside them where they walk their own wounds.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

GENTLY TREAD

Just because I‘m alive doesn‘t mean I‘m not dead
Just because I‘m talking doesn’t mean anything has been said
Just because I‘m lost doesn’t mean I‘m not being led

You might still be hungry, even after you‘ve been fed,
when you’ve been fed stones instead of bread

Those who heal wounds today, have also once bled.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

SEEING THROUGH

One of the downsides of seeing through humanity
Is that nothing inspires or excites you anymore
Or fills you with a sense of expectation…
Because you always bear the sad certainty
Within you
Of knowing how things are going to end.

One of the upsides of seeing through humanity
Is that nothing disappoints and shocks you anymore
Or fills you with a sense of hopelessness…
Because you always bear the the quiet recognition
Through experiencing
Of knowing that things always re-start.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije