2014

THE DANCING TOUCH

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

But require of me not that I dissect and demystify and recloak in petty words every poem, every rhyme, every song I write… and too many words obscure the subtle effect of the dancing touch of inspirational truth resting within the breast of true poetry…

Do you feel the stirring? Do you taste the salt? Do you hear the unbroken chant of spirit and light? Do you feel something…? If you do not, then you have no question. But if you do, then how come you do not understand the question in your own heart, when the language is yours and yours alone?

The dancing touch of poetry is more elocutive the less it is worded and worded too quickly…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WHEN THE MOON IS GONE…

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Like a soulful cry
On its own
Gradually spreading itself out
Through the vastness
Of the heavenly skies
So is the loneliness in my heart
When the moon is gone…

The hour of the full moon is gone
The setting suns
Leave moonless skies behind
Deep into the night
Once again…

Yet we bear it
Because
After the moon is gone
A different charm rules the night…
Until the moon
Another Moon
Another one
Comes again –

But I will never love this way again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE WATER DANCER

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As I was travelling from one place to another, once upon another time, I saw a young man with a friendly smile that occupied his lips and eyes, and – what do you know? – each time he spoke, he danced…

As he spoke, he danced to his own words. And as I spoke to him, how strange, he danced to my words too.

We had a deep and searching conversation, exchanging hearts. And by the time we parted, he was the traveller – although he still danced – and I was the dancer – although I still travelled – for we had changed, and exchanged, hearts.

I taught him how to travel, he taught me how to dance. If you will travel, then you must become like water. And this dance which he taught me, so strange, but it seems to me also to be…

The water dance.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BLACK SHEEP

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

Upon the fields and meadows
Saw I two black sheep
Alone, together
Feeding, side by side

And then evening was near
The shepherd
Slowly shaved the wool
Off one of them
And led it away

And now when I look into the fields
And meadows
Of my youth
All I see is one black sheep
Grazing alone…

Brother
I still miss you –
Except that the fields and meadows
Have become bare
And the second black sheep is gone too…

And the wind is cool
Upon the mountain-top…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE SHY IN EVERYONE

~ Che ~ 13 Comments

I can show you the earth, I can show you the sky, I can show you the sea, the sun and the moon; there is nothing I cannot show you, but my heart. Yet: what is in my heart, you may wonder? And truly there are only simple things therein, little things forgotten and unforgotten – yet I shall not show it to you.

You can touch the sky if you really try; you can swim every ocean, river, sea and Lake. You can stand on the moon, you can stroke a candle-flame; but, try as you might, you still cannot touch my heart, unless I let you. Not my heart… not this little heart of mine.

Is my heart fragile? Sometimes. Is my hard adamantine? Sometimes. What is a little human heart? A mountain? A sea? A cave? A mirror? A forest of flames? What?

I can show you everything but my heart, because locked within it is a painful shyness that simply cannot bear to be seen, or touched, the wrong way, by the wrong hand, or eye, too soon, too late. It is gone. Innocence. What happened?

If I could take away the Shyness from my heart, then I could show you my heart… but then all the fun would be gone. For a heart without shyness is only a memory of a heart – and my shyness is very precious to me and my heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MOUNTAINS LIQUID, MOUNTAINS LUMINOUS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Peoples of different origins
Colonised my heart
And raised therein an edifice
Of loneliness
And treasured dreams…

Look now at the liquid mountains
Luminous and eternal
Which have become my spirit’s
Backbone
Liquid mountains of moving light…

When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…

Inside each liquid mountain
Within each luminous elevation
Is a heart
Of gold, of fire, of love…

So love me forever, my dear.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DYING STARS

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In our hearts we feel it sometimes, we know it fullwell, even when we deny the feeling to everybody, including ourselves and our best friends, yet we know: the star is dying…

There you see it, in the spiritual firmaments of the decaying soul. It used to be a bright star, friendly and confident, and pure as miraculous crystal. Once, it shone and sparkled, twinkled and flared and brightly laughed like a flaming eye in the skyscapes of who you truly are… in the skylines of your sensitivity and consciousness.

What is that song which just faded out? It was not any ordinary song, nay. It was the star that lived, and died…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BIRDS AND SONGS OF FALKENSTEIN

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Catch the song
Of the bird
And sing it with a human voice
And the bird
Is yours –

Catch the songbird
And cage it in your house,
Yet you have it not,
Neither bird nor song –

Love your woman
For what she is
And she will always treasure you
Very specially
Inside her heart and home…

This was the song
That pierced my being
As we stood upon the peak
Of Falkenstein.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

NOSTALGIA’S DONE

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Just now I saw a morning star, luminous in the sky high up above me. And then suddenly I see it no more. Blue-grey clouds are journeying past in silent, ominous solemnity. Morning has dawned. The birds, they are a-singing. Early people are writing their feet into the road… and I am sitting outside, writing poetry and pretending it is prose.

Perhaps by the time I am through, and raise my head anew, the clouds would have gone completely by, and my star will be visible to me again. But if not, yet still I carry within me the picture of my morning star, as luminous in my heart as it was luminous in the sky.

I suppose this is what they call Nostalgia.

Now, see: the sun is rising, and the light is come again. Star, sun and light. And there is spirit inside of me – spirit and love.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LONELY FOOTFALLS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

How deep must be the night
Inexhaustibly deep
To awaken such endless restlessness
In countless sleepless souls

And there you see Love
Wandering in lonesome search
Like a homeless stranger on earth
Restless, tireless, nervous

Moving from heart to heart
Knock knock knocking on human’s door
‘Tis not the love of partner pleasure
It is higher, it is Compassion

And through the restless night
Quietly in spirit we search
As though we were desperately listening
For love’s footsteps in our hearts.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.