Poems

SELF-BELIEF

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

“Keep chipping away at that block
Keep clipping away at that rock
Keep knocking on and breaking that stone
Keep striking at and cracking that bone
It is their faith, their pride, their hope and strength
It is the very foundation of their self-confidence
So just keep hammering steadily away at it until
They lose every belief in themselves and their will.”

Now if you’re reading this and know what I mean,
Stand up and holler at your foes seen and unseen:
“I can’t be beaten! I can’t be stopped! Because I’ve seen through you
And I’ve seen through me, and I’m the stronger of the two!

Break me down and I’ll come back twice as strong
You don’t know my foundation, so you can’t kill my song.”

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UPON MY WORD

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

The pen is mightier
Than the sword
If only writers knew
The meaning of this word
Going forward, going backward

Those who seek vengeance
Through the use of the pen
Are writing their own sentence
Regret won’t heal the pain

Regret won’t heal the pain
My friend
So tread lightly in the rain
And softly sing

And softly sing
For when the verse is over
You’ll be the one to compose again
A new chorus to start over

And when you live again
Your life will be a book of stories
And everything you wrote
Will line your path with pain
Or shame or gladness or glory.

Some kill themselves by the sword
But most commit suicide by their own word.
Some live by the sword,
SOme die by the word
And vice versa.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HIDE AND SEEK

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Prose is a form of hiding
Within a forest of words
Poetry it is that betrays
The wounds behind the words

Prose says a lot of things
In order not to say one thing
Poetry says one little thing
In which is contained everything.

Where does pain come from?
Does it, like the wind
Arise when hot air rises
And the cold creeps in within?

Where does time go
While we’re waiting for it?
Where do you find hope
When you’ve lost it?

There is a flame
It is your spirit, it burns
It touches upon a point
That yearns and yearns and yearns….

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

PRIVACY

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

The deepest pain I had
The loneliest shame
My most sacred joy, yet I share
My most personal hopes
I not only voice
But unclothe in poetry’s inner light
So you see
More than you wish to see
Because all true art is
A private experience.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

KNOWING ME

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Someone stood by my side
In that hour when
Self-confidence is asleep
And self-belief has lost its way

In that dark hour when
All you do is question yourself
Because phantoms and demons and ghosts
Are whispering in your head

It is the hour when thieves are about
Stealing your last bit of self-worth
Under the cover of darkness
Thieves are faceless and this they know

And she was my sun when there was no sun
And she was my strength when I fell
And in my hour of deepest doubt
She kept our faith.

But one more thing she did
She took a walk through my dark side
And left signposts along the way
And told me: This is also you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

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image
What would the sky give
To uncage the clouds and set the rain free?
Everything she has; and yet
What’s the use?
You can set old secrets free

New ones will pile up inside again
For only what is hidden can set us free.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

This Poem was inspired by the Article: CONFESSIONS.

YOUTH

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Happiness was close
Always close
A thought away
A recognition away
But that was always too far
For a young mind blinded
By too many choices
Too many voices.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE ONE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Groupies gave you pleasure, but
Did not make you happy –
Only lonesomeness explained why
Too many moons kill the night
Too many moons spoil the dark

Pluck your moons one by one
From the autumn of imagination
One by one, let them rise
One by one, let them pass

In the absence of one
I had them all, but in truth
I walked with none
Talked with none, loved none
And the night was dark as day

And the night called a new moon
And night after night she grew
More and more beautiful as she
Slowly came, slowly stayed, slowly passed…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CLASS DIVIDE (I)

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Two streams there are
Those who fall into the first
Find the waterfall of horizon.

Those who fall into the second
Forever fight against the current
That keeps them down, drowning…

And forever they’ll be unionists
Protesting against the upper classes
Who mock them from above.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YELLOW SUN

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

And we shall sing as though
There be no morning,
Hear the night sway softly along, my dear
My heart is trying to say something
But I’ve forgotten the language
Of my ancestors…

But when we sing, I remember
A time before Christmas and December
When red earth and green hill and blue sky
Were home enough for us.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.