There is a select few who
Understand how to unite the two
Warring worlds into a peaceful third –
They are the irregularly winged bird
That closes spaces with one sweep
And with a hundred beats doth barely creep
Forward.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems
THE RETURN
A boy gave to a girl
A string of promises
Each vow was a pearl
And he strung eleven pearls together
On a silver cord
And presented them to her
As a parting gift…
But those who sow must reap.
She gave his string of pearls
To the man she really loved
And he gave it to the woman
He really loved
She gave it to the person
She really loved
Who gave it to the one
Most truly beloved
And so on and on
Until one day
The boy’s string of promises
Found its way
Back to him
Unbroken.
– C.he Chidi Chukwumerije
BREAK AWAY
He who will change something
Must break something
Sang none other
Than the fragile little butterfly…
Wings to unwind a universe.
He who will change something
Must break something
Sang none other
Than the fragile little chicken
To the other struggling egg.
And my mother placed her burning palm
On my heart, asked me to stay…
It was balm, but he who will change
Something must break something
A generation away
Sometimes you just have to
Break away.
The hoe cracked the hearth
The sower smiled
Rebirth cracked the palm kernel of death
Death learned from rebirth
About the quest for a higher birth
The reaper smiled.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
PLATITUDE
What is a kingdom to a God?
What is a moon to a sun?
What is thought to intuition?
What do you care?
Just dare!
When you are smashed
By your blasphemous Ambition
You will emerge
From out of the ruins of your kingdom
The shells of your broken personality…
Plant your mind
Like a budding tree
Into the deep dark soil of
Your intuition –
Let the Gardner sow
Let the Gardner tend
Let the Gardner reap.
That is why it took me so long
To realise we were always separating
Our love was always an ending
Never a commencing
A world is not enough for a home.
A grain of sand will do
When love is true.
O who would have known it was a love story
When our swords first clashed?
O who would have known it was a war
When our lips first met?
And Growth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
THOUGHTS OF FREEDOM
Bottling up the thoughts
Will not get rid of them
Yet speaking them all too soon
Is folly…
In the depth of silence
Assuming silence to be a lake
There is a cave
Wherein it glows like
Happiness
Bury your thoughts quietly within this
Cave of silent happiness
And no matter how rough a storm it be
That rocks the lake…
When all is calm again
Your thoughts
Will emerge matured and multiplied
And urge you
Urge you to set them free…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
MORNING TIME IN THE HOUSE OF STRIVING
It’s such a beautiful morning
The warmth of the day
seems to come partly from me
and partly from the sun –
The light of day makes visible
what already I see
I see through myself too…
A bundle of hopes
A catacomb of dreams
A flaming forest of wishes
A stirring of longings
An understanding
of imperfection as unfailing as
the morning –
Morning time in the house of striving…
Hello to the world
Greetings to my neighbour
Good morning, Stranger
By the time night calls
you will see
that you and me
suffers one destiny.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SEARCH
I think I definitely lost something
A better me
I hold a promise locked somewhere in my soul
But I’ve forgotten what it is
I know not how to unlock it
It is gone
Gone home.
Imagine
You are walking and
Walking and walking and walking
And
Walking and walking
And suddenly you make out something
In the distance –
But it is silent all around you
No life, no flowers, no birds
Only a dusty sun…
When you get to the object
You find that it is a tombstone
A silent grave undustied
In the middle of the desert
And your name is written on it
There
Waiting for you
In the middle of nowhere –
What do you do?
Thirsty soul
Hungry for love
Dying for the water of life
You stand for a long time
And stare down at your
Resting place.
But when you looked up
You saw
Gleaming above a distant hill
The green back of a yellow sun
Not dusty
Not lost…
What do you do?
Lay down in your grave
And die?
Or leave your name behind
And continue to walk
You talk to yourself
I hear you I hear you
Talking to yourself
Like a mad woman…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
WHEN THE MOON IS GONE…
Like a soulful cry
On its own
Gradually spreading itself out
Through the vastness
Of the heavenly skies
So is the loneliness in my heart
When the moon is gone…
The hour of the full moon is gone
The setting suns
Leave moonless skies behind
Deep into the night
Once again…
Yet we bear it
Because
After the moon is gone
A different charm rules the night…
Until the moon
Another Moon
Another one
Comes again –
But I will never love this way again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
REINCARNATION RIDDLE
How many times do
You think you
Have lived?
Blind mole
I am tired of your arguments
Stray in your hole
Keep on laughing
At me –
The soft brown earth is not as thick
As my dense black skin –
I cannot hear you.
I cannot hear you in there
Yet I know you are out there.
Your recurring epitaph
Awaits again:
The grind
Did wring you, it ground you
Pension was indeed
Your resting place.
Your nesting place.
How many times do
You think you
Have died?
Just once more.
Just once more.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
ENDINGS
You seek them at the beginnings
And find them not
You seek them through the middles
And find them not
You seek them at the endings
And find them not
Because where you were sure you would meet the End
You met only a new Beginning
And when you have started afresh
You understand that there are no endings
Because no stranger ever affects one so strangely
Or passes one by so quietly
As the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 