PSALM 23 - DER HERR IST MEIN HIRTE

DIVINE GUIDANCE - Based on Psalm 23

WRITING A LOVE LETTER

ALL THAT REMAINS IS A STUPID FACE

AUTUMN ADORNMENT

2010:  DER ISLÄNDISCHE EISVULKAN  EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL ( " ɛɪjäˌfjätläˌjœːkʏtl̥ " ) BRACH AUS

FLY, WHILE YOU STILL CAN DREAM - An autobiographical song

THREE POEMS AGAINST THE WAR – 
BY JOHANNES KÜHN

1. Job
Can’t you go collect weapons from the last war?
That would be a job. And just imagine how it might delight you to extend your work to the barracks, to gather what is new for the scrap heap— and to trumpet to all the men that you know what becomes of fighters in battle!
What—do I seem foolish to you? Say you’ve lost your way— and yet arrived at the right place.
*
2. Torso
The smooth white marble of the statue is missing a hand— the one that held the arrow of death. Who struck it off?
Perhaps when the realm of eternal peace was proclaimed, under sacred names, to end all wars. With one hand, the soldier is a civilian. And naked, he gleams through the park. I look on, content.
Long, long ago. Perhaps we were mistaken about the realm of peace. Indeed.
And the lands where no one dies in war have been sung about by birds— as they still are today. Listen to them in the leaves! They dart through the green and harp out sunlight, loud.
*
3. High-Rise
The high-rise looms victorious, like a hand reaching into the sky. Floor by floor, it climbs.
Standing at the topmost window you’d gaze playfully at the backs of hawks and larks— if they came, even crows— to the city’s edge, to see it, to circle it.
You’d look far down on the other houses that stand around it like lowly servants.
Your face chalk-white before the depth. A fall— no child’s game, no man’s deed, but death.
No fear that it might fall itself! Its roots of stone were rammed deep into the earth by the builders. And the walls— so that inside, children, men, and women might feel safe— were carefully joined with the finest mortar. Steel strand by steel strand runs through its stone-hard skin.
Devil’s toil gnawed the men’s joints— all the men who worked on this house month after month as the structure grew.
I walk beneath it, in awe, and curse the bomb that might strike it. I am afraid of war.
It dawns in a plane flying even higher than the house stands— in a frenzy of rocket-noise across the noonday sky.

Johannes Kühn (1934-2023) - Translation from German: Volker Carl Jacoby

ECHOES OF WAR - Three Poems of JOHANNES KÜHN

FEUERFEE

MAGIC SONG TO THE FIRE FAIRY

LETZTES LIED - Ein Gedicht von Mascha Kaléko

MIDLIFE DREAMING - Träume in der Mitte des Lebens

DEM SEMPERER ZUM RATE

MIDNIGHT BLUES  ON THE RAILWAY

BLUES ON THE RAILS

ODE AN DIE VENUS

CHRYSANTHEMEN-THEMENTAG

DIVING LOVE or: Ode to the Despair of a Poet in Love with a Diver. Oops, he looks like Woody Allen

KOMM UND STRAHLE!

UNIVERSE INSIDE

DER GESCHAFFTE GEVATTER oder DER MÜDE SCHNITTER WILL IN RENTE

LE VIEUX COMPAGNON FATIGUÉ

THE WEARY SCOTTISH REAPER (2) - One of my masterpieces since I'm in Soundcloud !!!

JEAN VALJEAN - L'OMBRE ET LA LUMIÈRE - Chanson en l'honneur de Victor Hugo et de son œuvre majeure « Les Misérables »

SITTING JUBILEE

MY EGO-TRIP BLUES

OPERATION REIMSTURM

DER OPPONIERENDE STINKEKÄFER 

Käfer war einst voller Trauer,
fast in Depression er sank:
seine Käferart auf Dauer
penetrant und eklig stank.

Auf den Herrn der Schöpfung sauer,
zollte dem er selten Dank:
„Warum solch ein Müpselschauer?
Macht zutiefst mich seelisch krank!“

Ja, der Stinkekäfer wagte -
ob er schon sonst herzlich brav,
doch geruchsbedingt verzagte -
Traumprotest zum Herrn im Schlaf.

Und der liebe Herrgott sagte,
als des Käfers Wut ihn traf,
„Freute stets mich, wenn mich fragte
auch ein Tier, sei’s Huhn, sei’s Schaf. 

Röchest du, mein Käfer, lieblich -
dies nun als Erklärung nimm -,
schnappte dich der Mensch wie üblich,
machte er aus dir Parfüm.

Alles, was ich olfaktorisch
negativ besetzte, stank,
hat ein langes Leben vor sich,
so auch du hier… mir sei Dank!“

vcjacoby

DER OPPONIERENDE STINKEKÄFER

DIE HIPHOPPIGEN ZOOWÄRTER RUFEN DIE TIERE ZUM DIENST

THE SLEEPCAP SMOKES - End credits song  "AGENT VC77 - THE MAN WITH THE LICENCE TO WRITE"

ETERNAL TWILIGHT - THE LOVESTRUCK  VAMPIRE-POET

Song of the Spirits Over the Waters
(English adaptation for musical setting)

The soul of man,
It flows like water:
From heaven it comes,
To heaven it rises,
Then falls again
To earth below—
Forever changing.

It pours from cliffs,
So steep and silent,
A pure bright stream.
It scatters sweetly
In cloud-like spray
On polished stone.
Softly received,
It veils its motion,
Whispers downward
To depths unknown.

When jagged rocks
Defy its falling,
It foams in fury,
Step by step
Toward the abyss.
In shallow beds
It creeps through meadows,
And in the mirror lake
The stars reflect
Their gentle faces.

The wind, a lover
Of wave and shimmer,
Stirs from the deep
The foaming tide.

O soul of man,
How like the water!
O fate of man,
How like the wind.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

SONG OF THE SPIRITS OVER THE WATERS - Based on a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

WINTERWÄRME - Soundtrack mit einem Gedicht von Richard Dehmel

WINTER WARMTH - Based on a poem by Richard Dehmel

CHACKY'S CHAT FUNK

ICH, DIE RATTE

Verse 1
I am the rat, a child of shadows, yet never do I crawl away. I gather up what others squander, and turn their remnants into pay. I hear the whispers in old stonework, I smell tomorrow in the breeze. I’ve known both hunger and deep sorrow – and still remain the one I am with ease.

Refrain
For I’m the rat, with cunning heart, a dancer moving between night and day. I know where every crack will start, and always made much out of little clay. I am the rat, small but wise, a master of the quiet art of life. One never has too many allies – I’d gladly count you in, if you’d oblige.

Verse 2
I love the hidden paths and byways that those who march too loudly never see. I build my nests without commandments, wherever instinct chooses them to be. I’m not a hero cast in letters golden, yet I survive through every storm. I know the world in all its seasons – and keep my humble tower safe and warm.

Refrain
For I’m the rat... 

Bridge
I am the rat who dares to cherish the things the world forgets with ease. I am the voice that’s never thunder, yet speaks a truth that does not cease. I carry earth within my footsteps, the element that gave me birth. I read the signs in all that’s near me – and stay myself upon this turning earth.

Final Refrain
For I’m the rat... 

vcjacoby

I AM THE RAT

LISTENING IN - After a poem by Hermann Hesse

AUFHORCHEN - Nach einem Gedicht von Hermann Hesse

ES NOCH EINMAL HÖREN

TO HEAR IT ONCE AGAIN !!

VC JACOBY - POET ON AI MUSICAL WAYS

Volker Carl Jacoby - Autor, Poet, Kabarettist, Comedian, Liedermacher, Synchronsprecher - https://www.literaturland-saar.de/personen/volker-carl-jacoby

Author, poet, cabaret artist, songwriter, voice actor, journalist and even pastor: Volker C. Jacoby is active in many fields.

He spent his childhood and youth in St. Ingbert. Saarland, Germany, where he attended the humanistic and classical language branch of the State Secondary School. After university and various jobs, he began working freelance for „Saarländischer Rundfunk“ Radio, initially as a correspondent for the SR 3 regional news program, in parallel with his readings and literary solo cabaret programs. This was followed by roles as a narrator for radio plays, as a voice actor, and for various commercials.

In 1977, Jacoby teamed up with Schorsch Seitz to form the duo "Jacoby & Schorsch." Together, they primarily composed humorous songs in Standard German and the Rhenish-Franconian-Saarland dialect with a cabaret-like, ironic touch. Their dialect songs, in particular, filled a clearly existing gap in the market, especially since "SR 3 Saarlandwelle" featured them permanently on their programming, thus making them known to a wider audience. Subsequently, "Jacoby and Schorsch" produced three vinyl albums and three singles. During their tours, they also performed open-air gigs with rock bands.

Soon well known beyond the borders of Saarland, the duo received engagements in Berlin, Stuttgart (Südfunk), Cologne (Westdeutscher Rundfunk), Frankfurt, Munich, Basel and Brussels, among others. During a TV recording at the Renitenztheater in Stuttgart, they also met Mathias Richling and Karl Dall. Jacoby collaborated with the latter several times for RTL on the radio show "Die schlaue Stunde." In 1993, the popularity of "Jacoby & Schorsch" peaked – not least through their appearances with Hanns Dieter Hüsch  (A "Hüsch Evening" with music in memory of his friend and cabaret colleague Hanns Dieter Hüsch was added to the repertoire – later in 2010).

He moved to France 1994. Since then, he has been performed readings, including singing. His dialect contributions have provided him with a rewarding outlet in the "Mundartring Saar" (Saarland dialect circle), including as a reciter of poems by deceased fellow authors, to whom he lends his voice.

Constantly prolific in literary terms, his poems are in the tradition of comic poetry in the style of Wilhelm Busch, Christian Morgenstern, Joachim Ringelnatz, Eugen Roth, Heinz Erhardt and Robert Gernhardt. Volker C. Jacoby also publishes his poetry and prose on LiteratPro, Facebook and YouTube. Since 2025, he has been setting his poems to music and is constantly writing new songs. And, of course, he continues to write his cheerful, humorous, and often very quirky poems.

"It's not the journey that matters, it's the result."

VC JACOBY

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