English

AN EARLY RECOGNITION ON RESISTANCE

~ Che

When I was a little boy – 6 or 7 – I watched a film on the Holocaust, in the sitting room with my parents. One question nagged at me then: why did they follow so quietly and obediently to their own deaths? Why did they not resist?

That question has since then detached itself from that film and that story and has followed me everywhere in life to this day, in many forms and contexts. In truth it was not a question – it was a Resolution.

Always resist.

Never give up, unjustly, what belongs to you, and is valuable to you, without a fight. It’s either you win, or you lose with pride.

All that’s left is for you to decide what your valuable possessions are.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

A NEW WORKING

~ Che

Often, on new year’s day
I said: new life
But today I feel it.

Often I had new year’s resolutions
But this year I feel them
Already I live them
For the first time in my life.

It took all of 43 years to get here
And decades of resolutions.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

A BASE

~ Che

Flower needs earth
Or water
Or tree
Flower needs something
To grow on.

Flower without base
Is an idea without implementation.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Alien Coming Soon

~ Che

I was at the ruins of Eppstein Castle last Sunday, shooting the Music Video for “Alien You‘re My Baby“

Coming soon.

Album: First Nature – Che Chidi Chukwumerije
1.
Strange woman
Something about you
You’re like an alien
And yet you make me feel so human… ahaha…
Alien, You’re My Baby

2.
Sax solo

3.
Your rhythm, My rhythm, your Rhythm
My Rhythm, your Rhythm, My Rhythm
Your Rhythm, My Rhythm, your Rhythm…

4.
Beautiful alien
And when You’re hurting
It hurts me deeply
And it just makes me feel so human… ahaha…
Alien, You’re My Baby

5.
Sax solo

6.
My Rhythm, your Rhythm, My Rhythm
Your Rhythm, My Rhythm, your Rhythm
My Rhythm, your Rhythm, My Rhythm

7.
Sax solo

8.
Alien, You’re My Baby Girl
Alien, You’re My Baby Girl
Alien, You’re My Baby Girl
Alien, You’re My Baby, My Baby…

9.
Repeat

10.
Sax Exit
With adlib
Hedabedabe..
Hedabedachapechapedaba…

11.
Repeat

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Happy Anniversary

~ Che

Wow. Who would have thought?… it’s 5 years already.
I started this blog with the intention of posting a poem a day for a whole year – and I did that thtoughout 2013.
I wonder if I should do it again in 2018… 🙂

LOVE WITHOUT AMBITION

~ Che

There is still so much to draw from
So much love
It becomes easy if
You don’t pair it with Ambition.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

MODES THEORY

~ Che

The theory that some people are good and some people are bad; some people are dependable and some people are unreliable; some people are weak and some people are strong; etc, – is false.

The proper recognition is that you are dependable to some people and unreliable to others; some people experience your good side, some suffer your bad side. In some situations you are strong, and in some situations you are weak.

You are full of theories, but in reality you are just a bunch of modes, like your mother nature herself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

DISHARMONY

~ Che

There came a time in my life when I prayed to die. Not because I had no food to eat, but because I had no gratitude with which to eat the food. Not because I had no bed on which to rest, but because I had no rest to place upon the bed. Not because I had no one to talk to, but because I had no friendliness to offer. Not because I loved death, but because I hated life.

Then I met a journeyman inside my soul, full of humility, laughter and ordinariness. And of the boisterous acceptance of the reality of things.

I am still trying to fathom this journeyman, to understand who he is; to come to grips with the simple realities of everyday life, like everyone else also does, none of whom is less weary of the toil than I am.

To become a man, Nigerians say, is not the job of one day. It requires time. Think I not that only I long for Home – every other Wanderer does so as well. Every.

Mayhaps if we made the Earth a better place, the journey would not be so unbearable afterall. Or what sayest thou?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

PAIN LIKE A STREAM

~ Che

Like a stream runs this ancient heart of mine. I write truest and best when I am in pain and all alone; this is when I write down tomorrow’s pieces. Not when I am happy and relaxed; lazy, immature me.

When I have comfort, I forget, I become complacent. When there is peace, I laugh, which is good, but I also fall asleep, which is dangerous and wrong.

Maybe two thousand years from now I will be mature enough to be happy and be inwardly mobile simultaneously –

Pending this day, however, pain will be the helper of the Poet and of the wanderer. Pain and love and longing. To Keep me awake, to drive me onwards…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RUNNING WATERS

~ Che

The story you told in the west is not identical with the laughter you laughed in the north, nor with the song you sang in the south, nor the thoughts you expressed in the east…

The language you spoke on the mountain is very different from the tongue you adopted in the valley, and from the violins you played through the woods, and the ballad you composed upon the blue-green meadows…

The roar you let out as you charged past us has a different content from the groan the desert drew out of you; and the whisper which ye sighed in this grateful heart is not the same cry with which ye flow into the sea.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije