A road of water, slippery
A bridge of knife-edge, treacherous
A fall of repetition, weakening
An opacity of reflection, saddening
A backdoor of wall, illusionary
A tiger of library, jealous
A conscience of intuition, merciless
Hardfall on softpain, intangibles
Awakening twice, once to life and once to self
Accepting the conditions of the journey
Intangibles, contradictions, repetitions, unpredictables
Armed with Intuition and intellect
Go with the flow.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is no other reward than finding yourself
The reward is finding yourself
And experiencing the joy of being yourself
It might seem like a small reward to you now
But when you’ve tasted everything else
Then you’ll understand that this is the greatest reward
Anything that emerges from deep within me
Is native to me
My hometown is a state of being
My state of being.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There are many things
That seem to be the same
But are not
Just like dawn and dusk
Those two strangers
Who have a way of appearing similar
And yet have never met
Or seen
Nor ever will
Nor ever be the same.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Footprints on sand
What is the proof that you ever lived?
What is record of self?
What is confirmation of identity?
Passport? No. Insufficient.
Fingerprints? No. Mute.
You. Spirit. Spirit is evidence.
Speak your mind before you die.
Character. Be yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I know they get in your way
They try to tell you we don’t belong together
They force you to lead a parallel existence
We’re living double lives
But behold a paradox:
In the lakes of their knowledge
You came up ignorant
In the garden of your ignorance
They found the seeds of knowledge
Who reinvented you?
Someone surely did
And it certainly wasn’t you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 