English

IMAGINATION

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

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They were not decorations on our wall
We were shadows on theirs
Flickering like candle thoughts
Gathering, falling and dispersing
Like broods of clouds
When we stand across the divide
Looking at each other, it’s hard to tell
Who is real
And who is the figment of whose imagination.

Writer, did you write your book
Or did your book write you?
Artist, did you paint that look
In the eye of the portrait watching you
Or are you just a thought in its mind?
If you look, sometimes you will find
That the musician is the instrument
And the song is the conductor of his movement.

And when an architect erects a building
He is only doing so to house therein his restless feelings.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

NATURE SHAPES AND NATURE FORMS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

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Nature shapes and nature forms
Humans, mountains, seasons, worms
Nature cools and nature warms
Hearts and loves, volcanoes and storms

But stretch out your hand to touch nature
And all you’ll touch are her dorms and norms
For nature herself is hidden from capture
And all we see are her shapes and forms.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MADIBA

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

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Kindness was his rod
With it he parted the red sea
Kindness was his road
Wide enough for all of humanity

Step forth, step forth, step forth
West, East, South, North.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IT WAS AUTUMN WHEN WE MET

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

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It was autumn when we met
Trees were reddening
Leaves were falling
Hearts were aching to spill the truth

Autumn, autumn
Cooler nights
Autumn, autumn
Mistier heights

It was autumn when we met
Days were shortening
Eyes were focusing more sharply
On every strange new thing –
To discern the whole truth
Before the snow-blanket
Stored any promises
About to be made –
Diamonds and promises are forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HEARTBREAK AND PROMISES, TOGETHERNESS, FAREWELLS AND SILENCE

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

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To make a promise to love another person, forever, and then to break this promise and say, Goodbye baby… awakens within the hearts of everybody who hears of it a memory of their own broken and unspoken promises.

Noise everywhere. Noise in my head. Noise even in the centre of silence. Lovers are what sages once were, and vice versa. Heartbreak and promises, togetherness, farewells and silence are all trying to resolve themselves within our hearts.

I should never have told you that I loved you, but how could I but not tell the truth? Evermore I understand the importance of silence. Our hearts are broken in silence: a small token to pay for the new powers which soon and steadily awaken in silence within us.

One who can bear the pain of heartbreak; one who can say goodbye and yet always be there; one who can preserve promises in silence unbroken; will read these lines with a knowing smile.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOUD

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Blessed are the silent
For they shall hear it first…

Blessed are the silent
For they shall hear it first.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CHOICES AND LANES, CHANGES, DESTINIES AND LIFE

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You make the principal choice only once, and then it drives you along its lanes. When you change, you change solely within these lanes, upwards or downwards, or round and round. You fix the terminal points of your destiny, and that is your life.

But fear not. The principal choice is the answer to who you are, always, and always is forever, and forever holds light for every spirit.

Poets remain poets,
comedians remain comedians,
lovers remain lovers,
leaders remain leaders.

Healers will be healers,
teachers teachers,
builders remain builders,
dancers remain dancers,
and weavers will always weave something.

Mountains remain mountains, be they on land or under the sea.

Women remain women, and children stay children, earthlife after earthlife.

Thoughts ever will strike me, once, and before they strike again, I would have written a poem for them, as a surprise, because I am just like that.

Friends remain friends, men remain men, and what we seek remains all we have.

Choices and lanes, changes, destinies and life.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE MOUNTAIN OF LONGING

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

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In everybody’s deepest heart
Towering and strange
A something which no map can chart
And beyond every range

The mountain of longing

This must be love, this must be love
Immortally the same
Through every mile of earth it dove
Seeking nor friend nor fame

Out in the distant sea it grows
Re-calling you and me
Out in the distant fields it snows
On in infinity

This must be life, this must be life
This must be where we were
You are my heart, my joy, my wife
Here, there and everywhere…

The mountain of longing.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GOLD AND DAWN, SONGS, LONELINESS AND STRENGTHS

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

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Gold glitters, but if all that glitters were gold, the world would be a place of great glitter and much emptiness.

Dawn ever arrives. No matter how dark the night, it will melt away when dawn awakens the travelling sun, and there will be laughter when you hear the voices of children playing in the morning…

Songs are a thing that are born mysteriously, and every moment everywhere hath its own songs too and there is no end to songs and games – and this has often mystified me.

And loneliness is a guest that comes and goes as he pleases, and once you get used to him, he becomes easy to live with and, together, both of you achieve many things which on your own you could not achieve, even if the whole world were to aid you.

There are some masterpieces which only lonely artists can create. There are some wars which only an army of lonely soldiers can win. There is a certain love which only two lonely hearts can share with one another. And loneliness seeks itself in you – but when loneliness goes away from you again, do not follow.

I am not strong. But when I unite with golden dawn and lonely songs, they make me the canvas on which they paint their dreams, and I am strong again. And free.

Gold and dawn, songs, loneliness and strengths.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YOUR TREE

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The tree you planted in my heart
Has grown strong…
The longer we remain apart
The more to each other we belong…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.