Of Contemplation And Search

DON’T WALK AWAY FROM THE PATH

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DON‘T WALK AWAY FROM THE PATH

When I was young and I still had a choice
I woke one day and heard a woman’s voice (and she said)
My son don’t walk away from the path
Courageously face all that it hath (because it’s)
Easy to walk away from the right path (but then)
It’s never easy finding your way back
Don’t walk away, son…….

Years passed and I became a man
I did away with all my childish plans
I saw the world the way it really was
But I was too weak to fight off its paws
And the woman’s words went flat (in my mind)
And I shut my eyes and walked away from the path
I walked away, Lord…..

Now I am… – –
I am… – –
So… – –
So… ….. hee ha!

Now since that time I’ve been living along the ways of men
In all that time I haven’t made one single friend
I’ve lost the peace of mind that I used to know
I’ve gained the world but what happened to my little soul (little soul….)

(instr.)

My son don’t walk away from the path
Courageously face all that it hath (because it’s)
Easy to walk away from the right track (but then)
It’s never easy way finding your way back
It’s easy to lose the track
It’s never easy finding your way back (I say)
It’s never easy finding your way back (ohh)
It’s never easy finding…
It’s never easy finding hey….
Your…… way back…
And I’m so… lonely.

Music/Words: Che Chidi Chukwumerije

HINDSIGHT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Knives in my back
They help me stand upright
You’ve got my back
Covered with purpose and bite
Back-stabbing attacks
Strengthen my will to fight
What in foresight a man lacks
He makes up for with hindsight.

The opened eyes at the back of your head
Are the lessons learned from the life you’ve led
The wars in which you bravely bled
And the wars from which you falsely fled
Treachery in you and others is rife
But you learn to fight better looking ahead
Your rear-facing eyes bring back to life
All the things you thought were dead.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE DEEP DEEP MOMENTS

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The Deep Deep Moments – Che Chidi

Which is worse, to lose your job
Or to lose your integrity?
Well one day you might have
To make that choice…
Now which would you choose,
To be employed or to be yourself?
If one day you just had
To make that choice

‘Cause the deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

Nobody can advice you,
It is your own path
It is your own destiny
And one day you’re gonna have to make that choice…
Nobody should stand before such a choice
Yet everybody will face it
Some day, somewhere,
Somehow…

The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

(whistle / hum / sax)

May be your job, may be your blood
Your best friend, your husband or your wife
One day something important will stand between you
And the values in your life

The deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while
I say, the deep deep moments in human life
Will come upon you every once in a while

They will come upon you, they will come upon you
They will come upon you every once in a while.
I say they will come upon you, they will come upon you
They will come upon you every once in a while.

Music / Words / Video: Che Chidi Chukwumerije

HOPE TO BE FOUND

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Line your pockets with seeds of hope
Find purpose when you secretly grope
through your hidden emotions, touch
one, touch all, no emotion is too much,
no matter how intense. The deeper
the grip, the closer it is to the reaper -
And you are the reaper of what you sow.
Empty your pockets of what you know
As you walk the road leave a flower trail
The Grail finds you if you seek the Grail.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

WHAT WE REALLY SEE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Nobody ever walks down the street,
Everybody always walks through their own world.
Nobody ever looks at the world,
Everybody always looks at an image in their mind.

Nobody lives outside
Everybody lives inside
Inside their own head, inside their own heart
Until you see what a person is looking at
In the core of their being
You’ll never know what they are seeing
When they are looking at you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

WHAT DO YOI REALLY WANT?

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Imagine if the only way God could save you

Was by letting you continue to search and to suffer –

Would you still continue to beg Him to save you?

Or would you ask the devil to make you an offer?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHY?

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I cannot handle lies
like hot mounds of yam on a plate
smoking squinted eyes
thoughtfully tonguing open the gate
of questioning Whys
where Truth comes never or too late
to hear my heart’s cries.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

EAGLE AT HEART

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Landing in Barcelona

Sun-burnished
The sea slit
The morning lit up
Furnished my wit
The varnished mirror beneath me crawls
And over-yonder my sun it calls
Back tarnished memory bit by bit.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

ONCE WE WERE LIGHT

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Once we were light
But the world weighed us down
Drowned out our cry of resistance
And put a bandage over our eyes

A desperate cry for help
Before we fell silent
And started to look silently at our children
The way once our parents looked at us

Now we know what they were thinking:
Retain your magic! Retain your lightness!
Even as they said to us worriedly:
You have to learn to fit into the system –

Knowing it was not the way
But knowing no other way
Or knowing it but not having the heart
To push us off the cliff –

Because not everybody grows wings
When falling through the gap.
The generation gap.
Now we watch our children worriedly

Wanting them to become like us
And wanting them to stay themselves too.
Once we were light
But the world weighed us down.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LIFE RECIPROCATES

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If you create beauty,
Beauty will create you.

If you give birth to a child,
The child will give birth to you.

If you make a mistake,
The mistake will make you.

If you reach for the Highest,
The Highest will reach for you.

And if you look for the Grail,
The Grail will find you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije