The departed are not dead
They do not rest in peace
If they rest, they have no peace
If they have peace, they‘re not at rest.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
#poemsthatmakeyouthink
Of Spirit And Divinity
LIGHTRISE
When more than the sun rises
And more than the moon is full
When enlightenment itself materialises
Upon and within your soul
When you awaken in the deepest sense
And the light of your spirit fills your eyes
Then shall you experience
The dawn of the morning Lightrise.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
HEAVEN
To serve God, humbly and quietly
Without pomp and pageantry
Is Heaven.
Modestly and consistently,
With conviction, gratefully.
Expecting no reward,
No recognition, no award –
Because the joy of service
Is reward enough –
Is Heaven.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
DISTANCE
I have a longing for intimacy
Not satisfied by sex
A craving for voyeurism
Not quenched by porn
A yearning for universal entanglement
Not gratified by orgies
And a need for intense borderlessness
Not staked by perversity
What is it?
I have an itch for mystification
Not calmed by lying
A desire for friction
Not stilled by confrontation
A propensity for destruction
Not quelled by murder
And a burning for escape
Not silenced by suicide
What is it?
It’s like I am separated from myself
And watch myself through a window
And everything that I do
Is actually being done by my shadow
While I wait for something real
Really really real.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
REMEMBER
Sunday
My body has returned from Worship
My spirit not yet
The sounds around me are like a dream
Far away
Where sunrise is sunset
The home around me is
A faint reflection of another Home
I often forget.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HUMILITY
The mystery of the Grail
The higher you go, the less worthy you feel
And when you get to the Top
You drop.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE SPLIT
I’m quiet tonight
Never mind that it’s morning
I’m still dreaming
I remember a friend
We had high hopes for his future
Yet he chose the Easy
Now I’m all alone
On the road we once chose together
Watching it grow longer
This pain I keep inside
Greater than death, worse than loss
Treachery’s dungeons.
If I doubted reincarnation
This life has taught me a bitter lesson
For I must come again
The work is unfinished
The cards will be reshuffled
I will come again.
Then I hear, so soft
The sounds of morning dawning
The past is over now.
Those words, those strange words
That baffle the minds of politics
Of culture and science
You can call me Fool
You can call me mad, and yet
You too will come again.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
HELL
You had to go to hell
To get the truth
After your ejected it
In heaven.
Don’t you know?
That’s the way it works
My friend
Hope you get it now.
Hell is Heaven’s secret school.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
LOCKED INSIDE
There is one frozen lake
That thaws not in the spring
It is winter of wordless ache
In my awakening
In my beginning
After I awoke
I greeted the earth and forgot
The language Creation spoke
Before the big bang
And ding dong merrily on high
Once upon a time
After a bell rang
Before the big bang
A song my spirit sang
Song of flame
In tongue of flame.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
OMEN REVERSED
His demons
Come straight from hell
Chase him everyday
He remembers the cries of the women
Children and all the others
Victims of his guns of war
The land is silent now
His conscience is loud
The demons won’t go away
They want to take him with them
Back to hell where he belongs.
The last thing he did
Before he disappeared into the depths of hell
Was to pray
Oh yeah he sent up a prayer
Of apology – no plea for mercy – just apology
For all the victims of his merciless guns
Before he with a bold heart faces his demons
And yes the demons
Dragged him down with them
To the bowels of hell
Where his evil had created them
And that was the last that was seen of him
And that was the last that was seen of him
Thousand of years have passed…
But now when I look I see
An angel hovering over the pits of hell
Looking for him, calling him, waiting for him…
Will he rise out again? You’ve done your time.
Rise up, rise up, repentant spirit
From out the pits of hell
Where you no longer belong
Come back to Earth and do it differently this time –
Birth. Rebirth.
A new child is born
An old soul has come back again
Do it better this time
Save lives, brother
Save lives, brother
Love they neighbour, man
A little child
I see it in your eyes
You’ve got a heart of gold
Knowing and old
Full of the mission to do something good
A little child
I see it in your eyes
Exorcism of the demons of old
Save lives, sister
Save lives, sister
Love they neighbour, woman.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 