A beautiful green palm-tree
Not the dark green but the bright yellow-green
That gleams in the day-light sheen
Against the azure-blue canvass of heaven, sky and a dream
An awaking dream; am I awake or do I dream?
I could almost be another green palm-tree.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I looked around and thought
No, this too is not my home
It’s time to move on
Then a voice from inside me asked
Where then is your home?
How long will you keep on
Moving on?
And I answered: I do not know.
I do not remember my home
But when I get there
I will know it –
That is why I keep on moving on.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
In the tears in his eyes I saw the question
What will happen to her
When I am gone?
There was a tenderness about the way
He looked at her, spoke to her
Touched her arm with every third word
And his eyes that looked into the distance
Were not gazing back at their past
Or wondering about his afterlife
They were looking into her future and marvelling
At the fact that life goes on
Even when you’re gone.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is a certain guidance
In our lives…
Birth was not the beginning
Death is not the end
If you remembered your beginning
You would understand why
Your path is the way it is
And why your end will be
The way it’s going to be…
There is a certain guidance
In our lives…
The inner voice has something to say
Echo of Creation’s prod
You do not heed your inner voice
Because you do not know
What you are supposed to be
You are confused by what you see
And cling to the wrong thoughts…
There is a certain guidance
Anchored in your inner voice…
You have to go the whole path
Only then will you reach
The end of your suffering
The beginning of your joy.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Life is a vineyard
I’m thinking of wine, you know wine?
Internalise life in little sips
Don’t rush me, don’t rush you
Life even then is strong enough.
Life is a graveyard
You pass it by, reluctant to look in
It scares you
Littered with the memories of the reflection
Of your certain destiny
It brings you into deepest reflection
Most sober. Life, you scare me to death.
Before I die I want to love somebody
I need to love somebody
I cannot just come and go like that
I want to love somebody with all my heart
With all my heart
At least once in my life.
And then I loved somebody and it
Was still not enough. And then I knew:
Before I die, I need to believe in something
And fight for something and live
For something more important to me
Than my own self. To be myself is
To become selfless.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is something about being different –
People can’t place their finger on it, can’t say why…
Some think it’s your colour
Some think it’s your hair
Some think it’s your religion, your culture, your upbringing and education –
Whence is the origin of that which is deeper than style?
Well, when God sunk me, a melody,
Into the soils of soul searching
He must have watered me with the laughter of your wellspring
Because you are my taste
When I feed upon His Word –
Ssshh, I say no more.
Blessed be he, that wandering bard,
Who in sweet swansong sighed and said:
“All I need in this life of sin
Is me and my girlfriend.”
I know what you mean, Tupac.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
In the hospital waiting room
It was not the sick who were ailing
But the healthy who accompanied them
I saw more worry in the eye
Of many a mother
Many thoughts on the brow of
Each accompanying husband
I saw that love shares burdens
And carries them doubly
And friendship will go the extra mile
And family is a wordless wonder
And the heart is the deepest mystery on earth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I knew it
It was too new
Not to be true too –
The questions unreplied were too few too
Happiness swallowed all the cares
Sorrow wears
Discord tears
Happiness shares and it goes around
The world is enough
Big enough, small enough, world enough
Sure.
Manure is pure. Sure.
Even a decadent mind
Even that dark heart
Can laugh out loud
Out loud –
Manure is pure.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I am on the bird’s wing,
When it beats they say
It is my heart.
Where are you going,
Prodigal Son?
I am on the lion’s tail.
When it twitches they say
It is my pride.
Where are you going,
Rebellious Brother?
If you put your ear
To the ground
All you will hear
Is the Spirit that
Rides within.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Though disgraced
I will not lose face
I will raise it
that the sun
may shine on me.
Every fibre of my being
Every corner of my soul
Every song of my spirit
Will become new –
for the flames of the sun
Have killed me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 