Poems

BIAFRANS AND NIGERIANS, YOU AND I

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

The Crack was so loud
We actually failed to hear
The piercing cry
We are dying even whilst they die

You struck me hard
You were hellbent on killing off
All the love in me
So that you could point at my corpse, my heart
And me the coffin housing it
And declare:
You see! He was dead all along!
And everybody will nod wisely
You cannot murder a dead man.

Africa vanished like smoke in the wind
And left Africa behind
Battling the barrenness you and I…
Strangers stood back
Watched us tear one another to pieces
And when we’re through
They’ll step in calmly and calmly pick up the pieces
And build anew an other Africa again
Their Gain
Empty of all Africans
Biafrans and Nigerians
Hutus and Tutsis, Zulus and Xhosas.
Holy Warriors,
Nationalists, Traditionalists, you
And I
And all that will remain
As a memory of a people that once was
Are the poems and songs we
Left behind…
Even the slogans will be forgotten.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

RENEWAL

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Every end is a bend

Every conclusion is a transition
Every termination is a transformation

The terminal
Is diurnal

Life means undeath
Unsheath the wreath
Catch your eternal breath

My friend.

– che chidi chukwumerije

TOMORROW CAME YESTERDAY

~ Che

Every new day is the future
you’ve been waiting for.
So, all those things you’ve made a vow
to do in the future,
do them now.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

PAIN

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

If you avoid pain, you avoid life
If you avoid life, you avoid youth
If you avoid youth, you avoid love
If you avoid love, you avoid experiencing

If you avoid experiencing, you avoid growth
If you avoid growth, you avoid change
If you avoid change, you avoid strength
If you avoid strength, you avoid happiness

If you avoid happiness, you avoid disappointment
If you avoid disappointment, you avoid movement
If you avoid movement, you avoid adventure
If you avoid adventure, you avoid surprise

If you avoid surprise, you avoid bravery
If you avoid bravery, you avoid horizon
If you avoid horizon, you avoid knowledge
If you avoid knowledge, you avoid yourself

If you avoid yourself, you avoid beauty
If you avoid beauty, you avoid challenge
If you avoid challenge, you avoid night
If you avoid night, you avoid dawn…

Do not fear Pain. It is the proof that you live,
The outgrowing of yourself
The door that separates you from your dreams.
Cross it.

The acceptance, experiencing and mastering of pain
Is the seed out of which the tree of life shall blossom
In all its rich manifestation…
For you.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

LOOKING FOR ART (A Duet)

~ Che ~ 8 Comments

van gogh 1

There are days
Grey is my colour
My fist is an empty net
My loneliness is trapped within
My lost lines

There are nights
Black is my colour
My mind is full of melancholy
My heart remembers it’s broken
My hope gone

Blue is the island
An oasis of seeking shade
Shade of hue and colours somewhere
On the horizons of intuition
Beckoning

Yellow is the fire
A symbol of promised growth
Rays invisible yet warming
The seed pushing towards light
Determined

For in my every dark hour
Every colour is comfort
Every form is transformation
Spirit, never stop looking
For Art.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije and Dormis Aeternitas

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This Poem is a Duet I wrote together with Dormis Aeternitas, a wonderful poet.

Visit his blog to read more of his enchanting work.

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Picture: Section of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”
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THE DAILY TRAINRIDE

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

In the skyline grey
Memory hung
The future gone astray
Emptiness stung
Hung with reality in the greying city
The dying trees, the loveless pity
Duplicity and winding and twisting, reflecting
The beast in the best of the robots erecting
Their concrete phalli, their bull’s I’s, to scratch the sky
The insatiable itch, impotent ambition, try and try
And try as you might, your might is the limp cloud
The wilted grass, the lonely office, the empty crowd
The quiet madness, the gory glory
The daily trainride into another same story
The casual business of getting by
Between yesterday and tomorrow
A moment of reflection, gone, a sigh
Of something neither joy nor sorrow.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

ROUGH FRUITS

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

I need everything
And I need dearth
I squeeze the leaven
To open the girth
My hour is eleven
Narrow, not straight
Rough sun having
Your fun on my mirth
When you burn my raven
Rekindle my hearth
I need Heaven
But I also need Earth.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

I WANT TO THANK YOU

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

I want to thank you
For letting me grow when I needed growth
And letting me go
When I needed space
And letting me be
When I needed the chance
To find my way back to you…

I want to thank you
For being my heart quietly beating inside
For being my mind
Mercifully sparing me the torture of unsolicited thoughts
For being my laughter
And my hope and my comfort
And my certainty that the sun will rise
And for being my home
When I lost my way.

I want to thank you
For believing in me when I lost faith in myself
For waiting for me
When I was searching for myself
In the fields of everything I am not
But think I ought to be
For planting your sadness like a quiet seed
In my heart
And reaping it with your joy
When it bore rich fruit
Because I understand.

And for many more things I want to thank you
Which I have no words to say…
Yet you understand.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

AT HOME

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When you already have
What you’re looking for
What are you still looking for?

What are you still living for?

Some live to find – when they find
Their life finds meaning

Some live to seek – when they find
Their life loses meaning

They must seek a new meaning
To their lives

To appreciate what you already have
To cherish it, to nourish it, to
Protect it, maintain it, value it and
Valorise it
Make something more out of something less.

Sometimes there is nothing better
Out there.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BEING GENUINE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

A foolish student
Will one day become a wise teacher
An unyielding sinner
Will one day become a moving preacher

The gap that yawns in you today
Will be filled by the pain of growth
Perfection and Imperfection may look like opposites
But when they arise in you, embrace them both

Because you don’t know which is which
Who is really poor and who is really rich.

– che chidi chukwumerije.