Poems

MOUNTAINS LIQUID, MOUNTAINS LUMINOUS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Peoples of different origins
Colonised my heart
And raised therein an edifice
Of loneliness
And treasured dreams…

Look now at the liquid mountains
Luminous and eternal
Which have become my spirit’s
Backbone
Liquid mountains of moving light…

When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…

Inside each liquid mountain
Within each luminous elevation
Is a heart
Of gold, of fire, of love…

So love me forever, my dear.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE RAY

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When a flower blossoms
We know
That it has been touched by
The ray

When a woman blossoms
We know
That she has been touched by
The ray

The beautiful ray.

When a writer is touched by
The ray
The whole world blossoms.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MAGICAL MOMENT

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If we could see the future, what would be its past?

If we could see the future, would we change the present?
And would we then see the new future that arises out of that?

If we could see the future, would it still be the future,
or would we have turned it into the past?

And what would the future then be?

I guess we can never really see the future…
The present is the future.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BIRDS AND SONGS OF FALKENSTEIN

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Catch the song
Of the bird
And sing it with a human voice
And the bird
Is yours –

Catch the songbird
And cage it in your house,
Yet you have it not,
Neither bird nor song –

Love your woman
For what she is
And she will always treasure you
Very specially
Inside her heart and home…

This was the song
That pierced my being
As we stood upon the peak
Of Falkenstein.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BRINK

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

The world is changing under your watch
There is hatred abroad, fear is at home
Never was it easier to manipulate the future
Crowds of boomerangs are rushing out of the past
Back to the present

When events take this turn, sharply
When all the resentments flower
When cultivated prejudices become seasoned culture
All that’s needed is a reason, a trigger, a spark
There is no hiding place

Everyone has got a grudge to prove
The dark hearts will plunge the world into chaos
And watch the good people tear themselves to pieces
– Who will rise above their shadow
And solve a paradox?

Everybody has been aching for the final conflict
Woe betide us
When it finally comes upon us.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

TWO ROADS THAT NEVER MEET

~ Che ~ 8 Comments

In space, so strange, I observed
That roads abound
Some straight, some crooked, some even swerved
And came around
And then saw I two roads together walking
Side by side they walked, all the while talking

They spoke, they joked, they conversed
But never touched
Yet still as friends they traversed
Countries that notched
They sometimes turned and peered into each other’s eyes
And yet, so strange, they never formed any ties

They diverged, they converged, and again,
For days on days
They changed, they exchanged, each its lane
Yet kept their ways
And on and on they travel on their way to Heaven
Never parting, never touching, sometimes odd, always even…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

FINDING STRENGTH FROM INVISIBLE PLACES

~ Che

No one to talk to,
And no one to tell that to.

Drawing strength
From invisible places
Everyday.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

AS IF THEY WERE GIVING

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Dead trees
blowing in the breeze
as if they were living,
yet they are dying

Foreign lands
stretching out their hands
as if they were giving.
But they are lying…

They are taking, taking back
what they lack
More than what they give –
they need More to live.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LONELY FOOTFALLS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

How deep must be the night
Inexhaustibly deep
To awaken such endless restlessness
In countless sleepless souls

And there you see Love
Wandering in lonesome search
Like a homeless stranger on earth
Restless, tireless, nervous

Moving from heart to heart
Knock knock knocking on human’s door
‘Tis not the love of partner pleasure
It is higher, it is Compassion

And through the restless night
Quietly in spirit we search
As though we were desperately listening
For love’s footsteps in our hearts.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE FUTURE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

The way your friends of today
Speak about their friends of yesterday
Is the way they’ll speak about you
To their friends of tomorrow too.

It’s easy to read the future
All you have to do is remember the past
Most things stay true to their nature
The first shall be the last

It’s always pride that leads to the fall
When people peak ‘cause they know it all
The sin that brought an angel down
Beware of it when your heights you crown

Those that swim in every wind
Will fall under the influence of your every whim
But when events keep you far away
Another’s mind will bend them its way

And those that always rise again
Or stand when others fall in pain
No-one can say the reason why
Yet, no matter what, they never leave your side

It’s easy to read the future
If you know how to read the past
Most things stay true to their chosen nature
The first shall be the last

That’s why when an Oak falls
Which long stood undefeated and tall
We feel an odd sadness, vulnerability
Injury upon our sense of stability

It is also the reason why
When a Sinner repents, beyond the Sky
The Angels are moved to their very core
And rejoice like never before…

It’s easy to read the future
Too often it mirrors the past
Yet leave a little room for error
For the human heart is vast.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.