Poems

FAINTHEARTEDNESS

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

There is a time, a moment
To say yes –
You feel it, you know it, you just
Have to say it

Yet you drown it in conversation
Puncture it with rhetoric
Hang a cloud of Why over it
Betray it with a question mark, and then fall silent

There is a time, a moment to
Say yes – only the brave
Will grasp it. The fainthearted
Will run away into a familiar point of view

Every meeting is a thing of beauty
Everything that confuses you and
Throws you off-balance is a gift from life
Knocking on the door of a greater you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE IDEA, NOT THE PERSON

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Those who subscribe to an idea
Usually flock around one
Who embodies that idea

The leader is the one whose activity
Awakens or keeps alive in the others
The spirit of the goal, and the belief

That the goal will be attained.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LINKS IN CHAINS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

There is someone, higher up
Who births and breathes into the ethers
One new poem everyday

In one of the poems he gave away
He expressed the wish, the urge
That far far far away

On the distant earth another poet
Would also start to do the same
And his wish came true

It may sound strange to you
But sometimes you simply are
Another person’s replica

Just by being yourself.
Life extends its boundaries
By replicating its core.

No matter what you think, no matter
What you know, of one thing be sure
There is always something more.

And when you think you created something
The blueprint was created by another
Whose path you’ll never cross

But his work lives in you, and a thousand
Years from now, another will happen upon
This thought you are thinking now

And he will think it is his original idea
And will bring it to what he thinks is
Fruition, and yet is just another seed.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DEATH IS UNENDING

~ Che

There is death
Without dying
Death of old things
Of shedding old feelings

You become a ghost
Of your former self –
Restless in peace
Because you’ve got so much to do.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SOCIAL INSECURITY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

A child will fall ill today
His parents will weep
Not because the child is ill
But because there is no safety net
To catch the weak and defenceless
In the land of the Niger and the Benue

Every fall is a fall
Through the cracks
Down to the rock bottom
Your savings alone might save you until
Your savings are gone – then, if you have
No rich family or friends, citizen you’re done

A man will lose his job today
A woman will lose her home tonight
Do not tell them not to weep
For they’re falling and there’s no safety net
To catch the weak and the helpless
In the land of the Niger and the Benue.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije 

SURVIVAL

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

What don’t I know
About you is what
I silently ask myself
Each time you ask me
What I’m thinking
As I think about you

How many wars
Have you fought, won and lost?
How many lives have
You taken, how many given?
How much hunger did you endure
To nourish so much anger?

How many loves have pierced you?
How many wounds are
Dripping a trail back to
How many acts of survival?
All I see is the smile in your eyes
And the hope in your heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DISAPPEARING

~ Che

That which is over
Feels like a dream
Even if it ended
Just yesterday

No matter how far in the past
No matter how far away
An unended story lies
It is with you here today

The heart is a miracle of chapters
Where pages grow blank
And as the days turn to nights and back
So life turns the pages of your heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE DRUMS OF WAR ARE SOUNDING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

The drums of war are sounding
The dead are readying to dance a dirge
Upon the graves of the living

Quarrelling woman to Solomon has spoken
If I won’t have world peace my way
Then tear the child to pieces

Those who crave world dominion
Are set to fight to the end to end
The culture of mixed opinions

The world grows dark with worry
And mothers clutch their babes to their breasts
And lovers fear what tomorrow will bring.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RIGHT IS MIGHT

~ Che

Might is not right –
Right is might.

This right is not the opppsite of left
Is not the right of fraternity bereft

This right is conscience
Is humanity in its essence

And the path to its Height.
– This right Is MIGHT.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SEVENTEEN POEMS

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

If I wrote seventeen poems
In one word
Would you understand my language?

If I wrote one word
Sung one love-song
In seventeen poems
Would you understand my language?

What if they were eight?
What if they were eighteen?

If every human smile were a poem
Every laugh a song
Every look a promise
If every human word were silence
You would not need seventeen poems
To understand me

Just one.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.