Poems

TALKING TO HERSELF

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

He loved her like the
Sun was about to fall down
Like lightning and thunder
Would be their eternal crown
And then when he’d had his fill he walked away
Now there she goes talking to herself
Each evening…

It hurts his soul
To see her cry
Yet he must go
He can’t explain why
The light and the darkness dwell inside his heart
So there she goes talking to herself
Each evening…

Trying to understand the demons in his heart
Trying hard to grasp what happened and then she starts
To blame herself for what she can’t explain
There she goes softly talking to herself
Each evening…

Each evening
Deep inside
Each evening
He’s suffering too
Too…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

KISS IN THE WOODS

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I met a kiss
As I walked through the woods
It came out from behind a tree
Out of the cold

And met my lips
When I was not looking
It sent a shock of sorrow
Through my memories of tomorrow

And when I opened my eyes again
It was gone.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

THE FIRST RECOLLECTIONS

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

Do you remember how we met?
It was by chance, wasn’t it?
That is, if we were to begin now
To believe in chance…
The chance that came our way –
We took it…
Just one look at it
And we took it –

I remember many beginnings
I remember the start of
Many love stories
But our beginning was indeed special
Because it was simply so natural
And so unaffected
Just like all the poems it has given birth to.

That was our beginning
And that shall be our story
The natural and the unaffected
Missing you breaks my heart
Even already on the first day
Without us together
Nothing o nothing will ever be the same Again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

AN OBSERVANT LAKE

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Grasmere Lake

How much of it is left?
How much of the mist
Still revisits my mornings
Before my thoughts come calling?

From afar, I
Mean from gazing
Across time, it
Is a wonder to hold in
Your heart a
Thing that never
Fades, never
Weakens, changes
Never, teaches you how

To know the
Things you really
Love. They are the
Ones you never
Forget.

This carry with you as you mature
Measure with this everything you nurture
The camera behind your mind
Will click and capture
A lifelong picture
Of the things that slipped through,
The people and places that got to the core of you.

It will continue to happen inside, an observant lake
Like another part of you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Cumbrian Lines: Poems Inspired By The Lake District.

HOMELESS

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Every time I want to go
Something tells me to stay
So far away from home.

Those who want to go end up staying
Those who want to stay end up going
So far away from home.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THOSE THOUGHTS DON’T DISAPPEAR

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Those thoughts don’t disappear
They keep living somewhere
In you… in me… in someone far away
From here…

Those thoughts don’t disappear
They keep working somewhere
In your world… in my world… or in a far away world
You don’t see and you don’t hear…

Oh, those quiet thoughts
That you’re thinking
Somebody’s picking
Round and round it goes, nothing’s new
And nothing’s hidden and nothing’s lost
Reap the sower must

Those thoughts, they don’t just disappear
They keep on growing somewhere
And one day… when you least expect it…
Oh oh oh, they’re back again in your life
Oh oh oh, they’re back again with their maker.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DIMLY

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I touch my intuition
Every morning
And at night I remember it
Like a friend from long ago
Far away
On the riverbanks of dawn
I forget what I saw in the soft bright sunlight
Of nightly dreams
Sometimes during the day
It will beat
Like a weak heart
I barely hear, barely feel
Quietly inside
Between conversations of How are you?
How are the revenue figures doing?
Very poorly. Stop. And look into the water
And feel your life
Trying to flow back to you, in little ripples
Of intuitively perceived memory
Of the blue island.

Don’t shake your head
And tell me you don’t understand
I know you simply don’t remember…
But I remember you; dimly
Like a friend from long long ago
Far far away
On a blue island….

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

MEETING GROUNDS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Meetings such as these
Can take place anywhere
On streets or in the house of dreams
Or upon open pages
That, beckoning, beckon the words
Out of another heart
And if you want to write a poem
The poem will come to you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOVE TODAY

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When you see the future
It becomes the past
And the future becomes again
Unknown to you
To spend your life exploring your future
Is to spend your time scrutinizing your past
It is to miss all the joy and pain
The moment holds for you.

There is only one future
The result of what you do today
There is only one past
Tomorrow it will be today.
Love me today. Make a new tomorrow
Hope is my crystal ball
I see your heart aching for laughter
And laughter after laughter.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CLIMBING HIGHER

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Another will come one day
Just as human, but deeper, realer
But tomorrow’s human will say
None can over yesterday’s be superior –

But higher (s)he shall be
And one day too shall write movingly
Of when another too shall in the future grace the stands
Who shall in turn be misunderstood and bereft of helping hands.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.