Nothing that comes, unspoiled
From the spirit
Is empty
It might take people two decades
Or two centuries
Or two millennia to understand it
But they will
Because, like an immortal light
The deeper the darkness
The brighter the flame
Until, one day
People take notice, stop, and ask…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When it’s raining
Even if it’s raining pain
Put a bucket out and drink up
It might never rain again –
When it rained
Some weeks ago
A glorious thunder, a waterfall from heaven
I envied the child I once was
Who ran naked in the rain…
Come run with me, my heart called to me
In the rain I stood, adult but child again
And raised my hands, even though memory caused me pain
And took again a shower in the rain
Whilst my eyes rained tears unto my thongue
I remembered the land of childhood, where I belong
An unforgotten song.
Drink while it’s raining
Swim while it’s flowing
Cry while it’s hurting
It might never rain again –
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I have heard that a new star
Is coming…
I hear it every time I return to the
Earth –
Somebody wrote it down a long time
Ago –
And everytime I reincarnate
I am confronted anew with the fact
Of the coming of a new star
A radiant star brighter than the sun
Filled with the power of all the seven heavens…
I have seen this Star.
I saw it once before I was born
I saw it from atop a Mountain before I was unborn
And I have no doubt that one day
It will have come much too close to the earth
For us to be able to do any other thing
Than burn down, burn up or become eternally burning flames
Of spiritual light, paradisiacal fire
Beyond the understanding of a new generation
And a new earth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I saw a bell
Fall under the spell
Of a magic wand
In a magician’s hand
And he turned the bell into a man
Walking up and down the land
Ringing out a message to everyone
But only a few will understand
I tell you what.
Affiliation to nationality and religion, gender, class and race
Will always be more important to the human race
Than being human, our common lot.
So now the bells, they are ringing
The hearts, they are singing
The times, they are bringing
A Message of Hope.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is something about Christmas
Even in places where it is cold, it is warm
Those without electricity bring light to each other
Drought and famine cannot destroy the bread of life
War will not make us forget that we are one human family
And the rich will not be happier than the poor –
There is a light that brought warmth upon this earth
If the cold of loneliness grips your heart this year
May Christmas touch you and make you warm.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I wrote this poem as part of an interview published in Sabine’s Lifestyle-Kolumne. The body of the interview is however in german, but it can be read here.
*Aka Teraka was my pseudonym.
Ibises of paradise
Crows of light
Echoes of Dove and Rose
Palm Trees and Christmas Day
From high up on a Tower
Bells ringing
Come to rest…
And the rest is Christmas Day
Side by side
We shoulder the walk up
The Mountainstar, unto the
Mountaintop
And peace.
For we are not walking alone
We are walking alone
With nature’s laws.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The Christmas holiday season
is like a dream
In January you wake up and
try to retain
as much of the dream as possible
within your heart.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
A year has passed
I hear the gasping of another young harmattan
Hanging in the air.
A growing quietness
Encompassing every pain
No rain.
Distance becomes a memory
The past becomes a story
To be told and relished
Retold embellished
With detachment.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Do you see
Those two boats
On the river?
Two brothers
Will row, side by side
Into the sunset.
One will dock
On the golden banks
While the other
Will row on
And they will wave
Goodbye to each other.
This is the way
Of the world
Of love and loss
Of meeting and parting
Of friendship and memory
Of life and death.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Picture:
My brother Kwame and I
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
1995
A few weeks later, he passed on in a car accident.
This was our last picture together.
A few birds still twitter
Even when the woods are cold
And when a gentle wind blows
And the autumn leaves russle
Hush hush
Around my ears
Then my years drop away again
Back to the beginning
And rush ahead once more to the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 