Poems

AS IF ALREADY WE KNEW

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

I remember you
Almost everyday.
Do thoughts forget
Their creators? Heart
And common sense agree
In me that they never could.
I remember you daily.

Our childhood and youth
Made my heart what
It is today. And though
You’re gone who knows
Where in the Beyond,
Still my memories of you,
Brother, know no boundaries.

How many times did
We watch Joe Panther?
Little did we know that
We were watching our future.
For, like Tiger died and left Joe,
One of us would go
And the other would lonely stay.

And I remember how quietly
We sat, together, trying
To hold back and conceal
Our tears that first time
We watched La Bamba –
As if already then we knew
How it would one day feel.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GROUPS OF US

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

How deep is homogeneity?
Does the colour of our skin
Express our similarity
Or mask the differences within?

How deep is nationality?
Does the passport we share
Stamp an ideological ethnicity
Or is it convenience out of fear?

Some plant gardens of roses
Some love lilies alone
Another meadow composes
A bouquet of everyone

Who can say rose gardens
Are prettier than plains
That lilies alone gladden,
Or a field that all contains?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

AUTUMN WAKE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Yield
Like the fields
Do yield
A piece of you
For the season of ripening
Is upon your feet.

All your old sins, and new too
All your old fears are new too
Even your old hopes will become new
Strengths, thoughts and dreams
Have rested long enough, it seems
Have rested long enough, it seems

Yield
Like the fields
Do yield
A multitude of fruits and roots
And all were offshoots
Of just one seed

So, yield to your need
And be the seed
And the fruit
And be the answer today
To the question you asked yesterday
Become one with your longing.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HOPE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I saw hope, lost
On the hills, amnesiac
And she was
Looking for hope.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FUNDAMENT

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Let us be a little quiet
For the night is quiet
And still are our thoughts
That hurry on ahead of us

And in the quietness, let us
Reach each into the other
Let us for one moment be
Each a visitor within the other

Let us touch the fundamental thought
Something that is valid
On every plane, in every world
On every earth, in every Beyond

Something that is true in life
And true in death, true in hell
And true in heaven – the one thing
That is always true, everywhere.

The essence of our humanity
The substance of our spirit
The kingdom within, joy, gratitude
Simplicity, honesty, love. Especially, love.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BITTER

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Do you know that never-ending road?
Do you know that ever-increasing load?
Do you know that pain when you receive pain?
Do you know that pain when you give pain?

Do you know that quarrel that can’t be settled?
Are you sore? Bitter? Embattled?
Do you want to hurt them back?
And hurt each time you hurt them back?

How elusive it is, no matter where you look
The last page stays missing in a riddled book
Vengeance will drive you to the ends of the earth
But won’t show you the way back to your hearth.

Revenge is its very own bittersweet revenge
The irony of the avenger – cruel, sad and strange:
To be trapped, a victim of your own vendetta
And wonder why it still doesn’t make you feel better.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

A BUTTERFLY SHOULD LEAVE ITS COCOON BEHIND

~ Che

I love you Baby
But sometimes Love
Is not enough to make Lohengrin stay.

Don’t knock on the door
Of the Unknown, if you don’t
Want to be overtaken by the Unknown.

But if you must, you must
Even when the line you have crossed
Is the boundary of trust.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DON’T READ ME

~ Che

READ YOU.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EVERYONE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Everyone is a little deaf
To some other person
A little blind
To some very important lesson
A little dumb
And someone’s fool
And a little numb
And sometimes a little too cool.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOVING BOTH

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Just like on quiet stealthy
Hesitant feet
Autumn circles and stalks
Summer’s heat
My thoughts reminisce
My heart’s sweet defeat
My dreams learn to become
Silent and discrete

’Twas never love
That broke a heart
Love never was spurned
That understood the art
Of stoking desire
By slaking its thirst
And stoking desire
By letting it thirst

And knowing the difference
Between the two
Is loving Summer
And Autumn too.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.