There is a select few who
Understand how to unite the two
Warring worlds into a peaceful third –
They are the irregularly winged bird
That closes spaces with one sweep
And with a hundred beats doth barely creep
Forward.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Of Alienation
SEARCH
I think I definitely lost something
A better me
I hold a promise locked somewhere in my soul
But I’ve forgotten what it is
I know not how to unlock it
It is gone
Gone home.
Imagine
You are walking and
Walking and walking and walking
And
Walking and walking
And suddenly you make out something
In the distance –
But it is silent all around you
No life, no flowers, no birds
Only a dusty sun…
When you get to the object
You find that it is a tombstone
A silent grave undustied
In the middle of the desert
And your name is written on it
There
Waiting for you
In the middle of nowhere –
What do you do?
Thirsty soul
Hungry for love
Dying for the water of life
You stand for a long time
And stare down at your
Resting place.
But when you looked up
You saw
Gleaming above a distant hill
The green back of a yellow sun
Not dusty
Not lost…
What do you do?
Lay down in your grave
And die?
Or leave your name behind
And continue to walk
You talk to yourself
I hear you I hear you
Talking to yourself
Like a mad woman…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
LONELY FOOTFALLS
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.
EMPTY AGAIN
In heaven
I saw birds
Even blackbirds
So I wrote
This poem
Which is just words
And when I was done
And looked up
It was an empty sky.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
READING MEANING
The strange bird
Strangely heard
Their fear as a song for which
It had no dance-steps
Their hatred as a tongue for which
It had no dictionary
All it had was its strangeness
And its strangeness was its Dance
And its book of many Meanings.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THOSE WHOM WE LEAVE BEHIND
When we love, we move…
When we move, we leave someone behind –
Whatever happens to those whom we leave behind?
I have often wondered
But I truly do not know
If I will recognise them
When I meet them again in a new time.
When we love, we move…
When we move, we leave someone behind –
Whatever happens to those whom we leave behind?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SHARE
How many go ahead
Who yet remember to erect road signs?
How many who break bread
Remember to leave a trail of crumbs behind?
I did not when I was ahead
But realised it not until I too fell behind.
Your hole yeast bread
Won’t rise to your comfort in lonely times.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE STRANGE BIRD
I am the one who left the herd
Who defied the labels outcast and nerd
Who made roses out of turd
Who broke his word to keep his word
Who seeks the unknown, victory assured
Who sang the strange song your spirit heard
I am the one, he, the strange bird.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
IRONY
Life can be a study in irony
The more people I know
The fewer friends I have
And when the night loves me
It fills me cruelly with loneliness
For it wakes me up in the dark quiet hours
But makes no effort to satisfy me
And the more I get the things I desire
The more I realise that what I really desire
Is something that already I have.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
TRAVELLER BEWARE
Wary of thirst
Wary of wandering
Weary, I wet my cup
In a wellspring I met
By the wayside
And when I put my lip
To its wet lip, the cup shivered
For bitter was the bile
That rose up from the well
And choked its heart
Traveller, it sang, in a voice
That wavered in the distance
Guard your thirst –
For not every bird that sings
Sings of dawn.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 