Poems

BEING HUMAN IN A SERIOUS AND HAPPY WAY

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Walk with me
Down quiet paths in the woods
Hold my hand
Tell me about yourself…
I’ll listen and give answers where I can
I’ll listen with my heart, the heart of an honest man…

I don’t want to take advantage of you
Everything that was good in you
When you were a child
I want it to come to the fore again
When you walk by my side…

And if somewhere along the way
We lie down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Being human in a serious and happy way…

I want the child we have together
To be a reflection of the child in you and me
I want our old age, our life’s evening
To be again like childhood, in the beginning…
Look into my eyes as I look into yours
Let’s hide nothing from each other, let’s have nothing to hide…
Let our quiet walk in the woods
Last longer than our life on earth…

And if somewhere along the way
We are laid down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Going up our path again together
Being human in a serious and happy way.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RETURN TO RECOGNITION

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Years pass
And all you do
Is return to the same
Recognition –

All the searching and adventuring
And experiencing and reflecting
Have only taken you
In a circle back to the Recognition
You acquired
The first time you were good…

There’s really only one way of doing it aright
Morally…
And you’ll have to come back to it
One day.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DEATH OF A FLOWER

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

You are afraid of a flower
She smiled sadly at me
My bosom blossoms for you

My thorns, they prick, I know
But love hurts the lover
And love hurts the loved

And I’m dying, I’m dying for you
Lie down in my grave with me
Let’s be reborn together.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS RESISTANCE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

No master gon’ willingly let a slave go
No oppressor gon’ willingly let the oppressed rise to his level
If you wan’ freedom, you gon’ take a blow!

The loss of property and means
The loss of power
The loss of status
Yea, the loss of status
Hurts like hell.

When you rise, it means that
Someone else is no longer higher
Than you and has to stomach that –
Remember that.

You gon’ pay a heavy price
Because everyone around you
Knows the value
Of self—elevation, knowledge and freedom

They will make you pay for it
If you’re really worth it.

The price of your freedom is their resistance.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EMPTY

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

It’s one of those wordless nights
When your lover isn’t talking to you
Or you’re not listening – one of the two

Who is thine love? She may be Nature
She may be Poetry, may be a thought hard to grasp
Or a human heart you suddenly can no longer decipher

She may be your path to destiny.
It’s one of those nights when I’m staring
At the TV and not seeing it, staring
At my phone and chatting with no-one, staring
At my saxophone and not playing it, staring
At empty paper and not writing anything.

Yet I’m full.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WEALTH OF POVERTY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

They shrink away instinctively
Disgustedly
From the poor
As though poverty were a disease

But even faster they
Avert their thought-sprinkled eyes
Nobody wants to see Shame
The shame mirrored within

Who is ashamed of whom?
Of what?
The rich is ashamed for being rich
The poor is ashamed for being poor

They both are ashamed of being
In the company of each other
One hopes the tides will turn
One fears the tides will turn.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FISHERMAN

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Daily my heart weeps
My soul is drenched in a river
Flowing with thoughts of you

Of late I have become
A fisherman
Richly rewarded for my toil

Bravely diving into the lake of love
Daily my heart weeps
With joy.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

ALL OR NOTHING

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

The entire I gave
While smallness was all
She ever wanted.
But the rest of me thirsts too.

When frivolity was laughing
At its own shadow
I warned
That my heart was dripping…

When superficiality was doing the maths
Around its own tunnel vision
I insisted
My heart is dripping out…

When cunning was blind to the metaphor
Of its own despair
I fell silent
And listened to the sound of bleeding feet

Walking away.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNRECONCILED

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

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.

BEING BAD AND BEING GOOD

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Simultaneously..
How does that work?
When the moon is the only light
She must not be ashamed of her nakedness

If the sun feels he is so great
Well, where is he at night
When we need him the most
To keep away?

Look not upon your faults
When you laugh, let it come
From deep within and make
Your tears jealous.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.