Du machst mein Herz reich und weich…
Du bist ein Teich, in den ich tauche
Ein Halt, den ich brauche…
Ein etwas in meinem Bauch –
Du machst mein Herz weich und reich.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
ALWAYS THERE
I saw three things up in the sky
Two birds and the moon
The birds flew away
While the moon remained
For a few hours,
And then was also gone…
Will you make me a promise, love
Never to be gone?
But like the sky be always there
Even when all else is gone.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
BREAK COCOON
The tomb
Heaven’s womb
The womb
Death’s tomb
When did you stop caring?
When you stopped fearing.
Your life is a window you’re wearing
Your death is an illusion you’re bearing
You can break with your past
Without committing suicide
Look out and cast
Your nesting mast
And thinking nests outside
Out wide.
You are not
What you think you are
What they think you are
What you’ve been told you are
What you’ve never been told you are
Because you forgot.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE EARTH IS NOT MY HOME
The earth is not my home
Although she ever seems
To weave fine birds that her heights roam
Like I do in my dreams
The earth is not my home
Although she always tries
To spread bright hues across her dome
Like in my home’s blue skies
The earth is not my home.
However hard she plot
To dull my homesickness with foam
She in the end cannot
The earth is not my home
And yet I wander here
And know that when my end is come,
Strange, still I’ll shed a tear.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
BRIEFLY HUMAN CORPORATE BEINGS
Upon every Passenger that comes my way rests the weight of a wish borne. Some carry with them, over oceans and continents, desires they have nurtured – sometimes unconsciously – from infancy. Yet they must upon a time bear fruit. If I were to consider every one a book, rich would be the language that riddled their many pages with tales of many tails. And yet we say to one another “Good day”, “What can I do for you?”, “Just a second”, and things like that as we drown our entire humanity and history in silence during a moment of business service or corporate interaction.
But once in a while one will come my way who looks into my eyes as though we were both human and, as we address the issue of his baggage, his ticket, his itinerary or some other such stuff, we talk about music, the arts, sports, history, headline news, but never in detail of course about politics or religion. We don’t have to anyway. Little things show one already where and how each person stands.
And then the day will pass and many other customers will come and go, and nothing wrong or below standard will be said or done, but only that one customer will remain in your memory who spoke to you about music, literature, the arts, sports, his family, your history, some headline news, but never in detail of course about politics or religion. It wasn’t necessary. Little things leave the biggest impression.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ZUSAMMEN SCHWEIGEN
Mit Schweigen
Werden redlich tausend mehr Empfindungen
Die zum Verschwinden sowieso heutzutage neigen
Sich einigend auf unterschwelligen Schwingungen
Sich zum Erkennen zeigen.
Während unseres Schweigens
Habe ich gehört,
Daß Du warst gestört
Und daß Du warst empört
Und hast aufgehört
Zu beachten die Botschaft unseres Schweigens –
Doch Dein aller-schönstes Lachen
Und Dein aller-größtes Machen
Ersetzen niemals das, was sie brachen:
Das Selbstverständliche unseres schönen Schweigens.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BLESSED BE THEY WHO WORK IN THE FIELD
A smile, a wave, from where did it come?
From beyond the earth, or heaven, or where?
We feel it, we see it, reflect it here from
And spread it the earth round, here there, everywhere
Blessed be they who work in the field
Who work with their hands in the soil
Blessed be they who, yield after yield
And season on season yet toil.
The end, the start, the middle of work
Like fishers at sea, unceasing, we roll
Like all true handworkers who never ever shrink
The call and the urging perceived in the soul
Blessed be they who work in the field
Who link man and nature on earth
Blessed be they, in them doth life shield
The true future waiting for birth.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
BECAUSE OF SOMETHING MISUNDERSTOOD
Because of something misunderstood, although constantly seen, we fought; we fought against one another. Neither of us was killed in the intense battle, but our friendship died, brutally murdered by mistrust and injured vanity and faults unconquered in you and me.
There was a word we left unspoken. Would that one had spoken it all this time, would that we had broken down the barriers, the artificial barriers, yesterday.
One day too late, yet all we see are smiles. Is it a joke, or a word of comfort, or a tale, an apology, a ruse, poetry or a bridge? Like it was when we started, like it was, is. Secrets sleeping sleep on still in the sands beneath the sea, lapping up the shores of solemn promises that may never be broken, until the sands are wetted and the rigid stances have melted, lest we break.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ASỤSỤ
N’asụsụ ndị ọzọ
A jụrụ m enyi m ajụjụ –
Ọ za m…
M wee jụ kwa ya
Ajụjụ ahụ n’asụsụ m –
Ọ za m…
M wee ghọta na ọ weghị asụsụ abụọ
Bụ otu…,
Maka ihe enyi m zara m n’oge mbụ
A bụghị ihe ọ zara m n’oge abụọ…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HEART TOUCH
Twice I touched her heart
So she cried
Once she cried
And then she cried no more.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 