Poetry

A BIRD FROM AN ALIEN COUNTRY

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

A girl arose from bed one morning
And heard the alien call
Of a bird
From an alien country

She looked out of her window
Saw the bird
Hovering in the air, calling…

The girl became confused
For she could strangely understand the bird’s song
And yet knew not its meaning:
The first person to trust me
Is mine…
Sang the bird.

And then the girl’s brother shed his night-gown
And flew out to meet the calling bird – the bird
From an alien country…
And the girl watched them fly away
Two identical birds
To their alien country

The first one to trust me
Is mine.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SLIPPERY

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I have seen
That Evil
Is deep

It has silenced me
For where it nests
Is the noiseless depth
Pay no attention to my words

They are a distraction
If you want to hear my message
Listen to my silence
My words will show you the way into my silence
Where I talk of treachery no words can describe.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

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

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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