IN YOUR WORLD

In your world I’m weird
I write poems everyday
Money to me is not wealth
Politics is an illusion they play
Religions are superficial
God is different from what they say
Intimacy is often artificial
Your way is not my way
I don’t attach, I don’t detach
I seem to neither go nor stay
And yet somehow I still touch
You much deeper than they.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

EIN TAG ZUHAUSE

Ein Tag Zuhause
fühlt sich manchmal
wie ein Es-war-einmal an

Ein anderes Zuhause
fern fern fern von hier
rückt fühlbar näher ran…

Ein Tag Zuhause
wie im Paradiesgarten
der Dich neu starten kann.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung

OUR MINDS

Boarding another person’s
Train of thoughts…
What a ride.
Places and passengers of all sorts -
It’s hard to know
At which station to jump off
Before you go mad
Without missing all the good stuff.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

THE DEEP DEEP MOMENTS

The Deep Deep Moments – Che Chidi

Which is worse, to lose your job
Or to lose your integrity?
Well one day you might have
To make that choice…
Now which would you choose,
To be employed or to be yourself?
If one day you just had
To make that choice

‘Cause the deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

Nobody can advice you,
It is your own path
It is your own destiny
And one day you’re gonna have to make that choice…
Nobody should stand before such a choice
Yet everybody will face it
Some day, somewhere,
Somehow…

The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

(whistle / hum / sax)

May be your job, may be your blood
Your best friend, your husband or your wife
One day something important will stand between you
And the values in your life

The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
I say, the deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

They will come upon you, they will come upon you
They will come upon you every once in a while.
I say they will come upon you, they will come upon you
They will come upon you every once in a while.

Music / Words / Video: Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LEBEN WOLLEN

Wollen sollen
Leben wollen
Wollen sollen
Leben sollen

Lieben lieben
Hassen lassen
Vergeben geben
Hassen lassen

Wagen wagen
Empfinden finden
Leben wollen
Wollen sollen
Leben sollen.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung

UNCOLONIZED

Chaos made us thirst
Orderliness undid the rest
Today we ravish with finesse
This global concrete forest
Immaculately dressed
Inwardly lawless
Appetite burning in our chest.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

MEINE INNENSEITE

Dennoch bin ich bitter ernst
auch wenn ich lächle und lache…
Dennoch bin ich beschäftigt
auch wenn ich nichts mache…
Dennoch bin ich unterwegs
auch wenn ich daheim liege…
Dennoch bin ich Zuhause
auch wenn ich da oben fliege…
und Heimweh kriege…

Dennoch glaube ich an Gott
auch wenn ich dem Teufel erliege…
Dennoch bekämpfe das Böse
auch wenn ich ihm gegenüber leicht wiege
auch wenn ich mich immer wieder verbiege
auch wenn ich manchmal falsch abbiege
ich werde kämpfen, bis ich siege.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung

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

MEINE SPRACHE

Wie lange stehe ich schon hier
zwischen Dunkelheit und Licht,
und warte auf irgendjemanden,
der meine Sprache spricht?

Nicht Deutsch, Englisch oder Igbo -
für die gibt‘s schon viele Sprechenden.
Nicht Mundart oder Körpersprache,
noch die Zeichen der Gebärdenden.

Keine KI kann meine Sprache übersetzen,
das schafft nur menschliche Empfindung.
Denn was die innere Stimme sagt,
ist für die gleichartige geistige Gesinnung.

Die Stadtmitte ist voller Spaziergänger
auf der Suche nach wahrer Gleichart,
nach jemandem, der ihre Sprache spricht,
unter der Haut sind sie wund und zart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung

SMALL IS BIG

Did you ever notice?
When we become small, smallness
becomes big to us.
Both in rightness and in wrongness.

Those who have reduced
themselves in bondage to materialism
become totally convinced
that matter is the boundary of realism.

But those who have humbled
themselves to serve the small inner voice
are content to be invisible
in fulfilling that in which their spirits rejoice

If you love flowers, flowers are big to you
If you crave power, power is big to you
If you are petty, pettiness is big to you
If you are virtuous, the virtues are big to you.

And someone doing a very small thing
will sometimes look big to you
While someone doing a very big thing
will sometimes look small to you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river