I see only nothing –
Emptiness has suffocated the world.
Hollowness on the inside…
Bring yourself to the fore
And stop hiding like a scared animal
In the darkness of your fear of societal assumptions.
Stop being a learned act on the stage of life –
Stop being a masquerade in the market-place of shared dreams…
Be yourself!
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
When your people come calling
Big Brother and all
Will you be able to resist the pressure?
Will you still be you
The You you now are?
When your people come calling
Will they assign again to you your old role
Or will you assign to everybody a new role?
Will you still be you
The You you now are?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Once upon a time
A magician turned
Himself into a magic wand
And turned his magic wand
Into himself.
There they go
The magician and his wand.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The mirror sang from side to side
Somewhere over the rainbow an old guitar
Picked up a young musician,
Awakened in his heart the desire
To be a Bridge.
And he is still wandering
looking for himself –
When the masquerade dances
not earthly drums move its feet
but the worlds underneath.
When your heart moves
Close your ears to the kora you hear
Look for the mirror within
For the mirror swings
from side to side.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
I have to be
The father of the child in me
Protect him
Encourage him
Allow him to dare to be
The child that should once have been me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
I’m tired of writing poems,
I want to be one.
– Che.
Give me you.
Before you begin to wonder
What you are, remember
That each star and each season
Is nature’s gift for a reason
And you, dear spirit, your blossoming heart
Is spirit’s gift to the gift of art
It is the art of being you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The same song, the same gong
The same sound
It is all bound up in the same one
Concept –
I conceptualise, I discover, I am, I am not
I conceptualise, I know, I know not, I grow
A bell opened up and let out a melody
Ten thousand Songs, memory.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I am my own forerunner
My own ancestor
The reincarnation of myself
I am the roots of my own tree
The stem, the trunk, the branches and the leaves
The flower and the fruit
The source of my own seeds
I am the beginning of my self
And the continuation and the end
The original blame rests upon me
The final victory shall be my handiwork
I am the controller of my destiny
Nothing more, nothing less
Nothing else.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
(Image by kloxklox_com)
More important is yourself
A traditional mind might wear
A cultural dress might tear
A social responsibility could grow cold
An educational dream might never unfold
Or maybe it will
Still
More important is yourself –
Be yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
(Image by Couleur)
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 