Every face is a story Every grimace tells of lost glory Every I’m sorry Every Don’t worry Reawakens a thousand year old history And solves quietly a complicated mystery From a long forgotten story. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
reincarnation
AGAIN AND AGAIN
The Heart does not forget overnight Sometimes it needs more than one lifetime To forget the way back to the Light And the echo of the last Grail Bell’s chime Again and again it reads the Message Again and again it feels the pull of the Call But the gains and pains of the Modern Age Make it time and again slowly forget it All. A sad day it is time and time again When a soul rises again from its deathbed, And all it’s relatives’ tears and pain Will be nothing compared to its own regret. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
WAY BACK HOME
Don‘t mourn me when I die Wave me goodbye I will be going home If I miss my way home Then I will come Back again to retry. So don’t mourn me when I die I did not come to stay I came here to find my way Back Home. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
ANCIENT SPIRITS
Give me ten minutes And I‘ll give you a million years of reincarnation Locked within my heart. No limits. Everybody I meet is my next destination. Don’t think I am just this person you see, Born a few decades ago - just recently. I, like you, am ancient, like the sand and the sea. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
LOTUS ADE
Langsam rückt näher
Der schwere Abschied
Die Distanz kurz und leer
Zwischen mir und dem Meer
Tote Stille. Dunkler Fried.
Doch Trennung muß sein
Immer und immer wieder
Tauchen wir blind hinein
In den schattigen blauen Hain
Hinterlassen dort unsere Lieder.
Und wenn eine Lotusblüte
Sanft vorbei schwebt
Erweckt diese Wundertüte
Die Reinheit und die Güte
Die an unserer Erinnerung klebt.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
2019: Jahr der deutschen Dichtung
INDIEN
Land der Gegensätze
Der Seelenschätze
Besetzst tausend Plätze
In meinen Seelenhüllen
Spinnst Deine Netze
In meinen Gefühlen
Sicher habe ich Dich mal
Gekannt, geliebt, verlassen
Es war (mehr als) einmal
Mein Fuß auf Deinen Straßen
Gelernt und erlebt Lieben und Hassen
In Deinen Dörfern und Gassen
Und die Stufen des Betens
Des Himmelsleiter Betretens
Des Gnadenarten Erbetens
Habe ich hier ertastet
Die Erkenntnis des Gottanbetens
Die noch auf mir lastet.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
2019: Jahr der deutschen Dichtung
WAKE UP BEFORE THE FIGHT, NOT AFTER
That, for which you need the knowledge you got out of the lesson, is already gone and done, has already happened.
There are some things that need to happen in order for certain lessons to be learned and pieces of knowledge acquired. It would have been better if the recognition had been won, or already rested in one’s possession, before the onset of the event; because actually the knowledge was needed to be able to handle the event properly. Instead, the event has become the bringer and the teacher of the knowledge which can no longer be used to prevent, manage or correct that same event.
What sad, poignant, irony! Now you have the knowledge, but it is useless for the purpose for which it was meant to be used in your life. You grow old just to learn the value of youth. You become a foreigner just to learn the value of being a native. You die just learn the value of life. You ignore advice only to understand its value when it is too late to use it anymore. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
So when are you going to make use of this new knowledge now? You will get your chance when you come again in another life. But will you remember, somewhere deep down in your soul, what you are painfully learning today? Do you remember, deep down in your soul, what you once painfully learned in another life? Go deep inside. Read it again. Read it again. Your soul is a book. And you the spirit are its author.
Always wake up before the fight – not after!
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
NO LAWS CAN SAVE A NATION
The simplicity of reality
Drag me down to earth
Some mistakes can be corrected
Only through death and rebirth
But it takes even more strength
To live with your unrectified error
And if you can no longer change your path
Then go it with virtue and valour
The outer Change is not as important
As the inner Transformation
If individuals stay inwardly corrupt
No laws can save a Nation
And when you lose your fear
Of mockery and condescension
You’ll see that most People are simply Followers
For fear of ostracization.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE SPLIT
I’m quiet tonight
Never mind that it’s morning
I’m still dreaming
I remember a friend
We had high hopes for his future
Yet he chose the Easy
Now I’m all alone
On the road we once chose together
Watching it grow longer
This pain I keep inside
Greater than death, worse than loss
Treachery’s dungeons.
If I doubted reincarnation
This life has taught me a bitter lesson
For I must come again
The work is unfinished
The cards will be reshuffled
I will come again.
Then I hear, so soft
The sounds of morning dawning
The past is over now.
Those words, those strange words
That baffle the minds of politics
Of culture and science
You can call me Fool
You can call me mad, and yet
You too will come again.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
UNCONVENTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Human characters incarnate
And re-incarnate.
Each stay on another Earth is but
A continuation.
It is limited by time and
Saturated by responsibility.
There is a task…
– this is the objective happening,
always to be borne in mind.
The key to fulfilment is Love,
Always to be borne in Heart.
You running and you running and you running away,
Sang Mr. Bob Marley
But you can’t run away from yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 