Of Inner States

CHERISHED ALWAYS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I know you’re waiting for me to come
You know I’m waiting for you to become –
How long?

An upturned Calabash hides something
A broken mirror is still a mirror
A song unsung – is it a song?
A loveless soul – is it a soul?
When lovers part, are they still lovers?
Have they learnt how to love
Or forgotten how to love a little?
Upsidedownworld.
Turn it upsideupanddownsidedown
But leave the middle in the middle.

The world grows quiet quietly
A lone car passes now and then
A dog barks gently, night falls lightly
And the studio condenses around me again.

Who was I thinking of just now?
Where was I before evening called me back?
A heart is a thousand stories
And forgotten memories.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

ODE TO QUIETNESS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Good morning, Quietness,
I remember how with surprise
I felt your absence last night.
And did I thirst for you? First I thrashed about wildly,
Clutching at every suggestion of you,

Then, exhausted, like a leopard I crouched, still,
And lay in wait for you – awake, listening,
Until the morning came… My life rolled before my inner eyes,
Awakening you from the depths of my heart –
Good morning, Quietness, as I fall asleep at last.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image by PublicDomainImages

Our hearts are broken in our youths,
The pain is deep and deeply buried
Beneath our adult ways and fashioned truths;
First love and first death never are forgotten…
First hopes and first dreams, of our young hearts begotten,
Within our innermost souls are ever carried.

Our hearts are shaken in our youths,
Our melodies tempered, our vision stirred…
Amidst all in the world that hurts or soothes
We sometimes slip back again into old times
And see young smiles and remember dead rhymes –
Our backward glance is never completely impaired.

Our hearts are made and formed yesterday,
And today we continue to actualise
The longing that awakened with the early morning ray…
And though yesterday is all done and gone away,
Yet we have it with us always in our hearts everyday
As we boldly heavenwards continue to strive and rise.

Yes, our hearts are awakened in our youths,
And who or what can stop a heart?
It wants to grow; like a stem it shoots
Towards light and life, towards stimulation –
And we shall make it, through trial, tribulation
And whateverelse it be that ever be on our chart!

Forever, forever, the candle is flaming…
And laughing and rising and working, remaining the same.

Our hearts are strengthened in our youths,
If we truly choose to live!
Yesterday, today and forever are booths –
We exit one and enter the next;
And hope and promise shall always be our text,
Yes, Father Above, and our gratitude to THEE we give!

Our hearts are born wild, live wild; until the taming
Gives us depth, dimension and the truth behind our naming.

Yesterday, today and forever…
Alive today, dead never –
We flower forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

 

Image by PublicDomainImages

HERE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image by Geralt

Where do we find the meadows
Where do we find unsullied fields
Where do we find clear rivers
Safe streets, calm roads?

Where do we find prompt justice
Where do we find the fairest laws
Where do we find true balance
Round wisdom, pure love?

Where do we find harmony
Where do we find melody deep
Where do we find communion
Unity, respect?

The Desert is spreading, spreading and spreading
And eating up our gardens and drying up our fields
The Wanderer is going, going and going
Receiving, containing and learning always.
What is true existence? What is the good life?
Within or without? Or here or there?
There is nothing better than Home…

Home is here with us
We only need to give it a chance
And it will make us as happy as
Ever human beings could be on earth…
Home is ever here with us
In our hearts, at our fingertips…
Let it flow.

Where do we find fulfillment
Where do we find the heavenly
Where do we find perfection
Salvation, rebirth?

We find it right Here
In our hearts, in our homes, in our countrysides and cities,
In our striving, in our suffering, in our experiencing…
We find it in our growing, in our giving, in our maturing…
Nobody is going to do it for us
So we have to keep doing it
Until we get it right at last and forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

 

(Image by Geralt)

SONG OF THE THIRST

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image

Nothing can satisfy me –

No book, no woman, nothing on earth
Can still my thirst

I will die
But my thirst will live forever
I will die
But my thirst will live forever…

No vice, no love, nothing
Is enough

Nothing will ever be enough

This thirst will live forever
And thirst in me forever more…

And never satisfy me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNCONSCIOUS

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

image

A leaf…
Trembling in
The wind –

I
Through life move
With half-open eyes
That fail to see the other
Side…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IMAGINATION

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image

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.

YOUR TREE

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image
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.

LARGE GREY CLOUDS

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swallow that pride
step aside
that narrow heart, it is a road
open it wide

lei in that sunshine
look out the window
that thing out there that makes you
feel so good, it is light
and you’ve got it in your eyes

sometimes, locked away
i espy the large grey cloud
i understand that you are proud
is it so hard to let go?
to let those feelings show?

guess it must really be hard or
you would have done it long ago –
i see it in your eyes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOOK DEEPER

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We are so strongly influenced
By the form of what we see
That we lose sight of a sense
Of what its true content could be

Who would ever guess
That in a cocoon sleeps a butterfly
Or that the greatest devil of all
Looks like an angel in the sky?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.