No one to talk to,
And no one to tell that to.
Drawing strength
From invisible places
Everyday.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Poetry
AS IF THEY WERE GIVING
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
LONELY FOOTFALLS
How deep must be the night
Inexhaustibly deep
To awaken such endless restlessness
In countless sleepless souls
And there you see Love
Wandering in lonesome search
Like a homeless stranger on earth
Restless, tireless, nervous
Moving from heart to heart
Knock knock knocking on human’s door
‘Tis not the love of partner pleasure
It is higher, it is Compassion
And through the restless night
Quietly in spirit we search
As though we were desperately listening
For love’s footsteps in our hearts.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE FUTURE
The way your friends of today
Speak about their friends of yesterday
Is the way they’ll speak about you
To their friends of tomorrow too.
It’s easy to read the future
All you have to do is remember the past
Most things stay true to their nature
The first shall be the last
It’s always pride that leads to the fall
When people peak ‘cause they know it all
The sin that brought an angel down
Beware of it when your heights you crown
Those that swim in every wind
Will fall under the influence of your every whim
But when events keep you far away
Another’s mind will bend them its way
And those that always rise again
Or stand when others fall in pain
No-one can say the reason why
Yet, no matter what, they never leave your side
It’s easy to read the future
If you know how to read the past
Most things stay true to their chosen nature
The first shall be the last
That’s why when an Oak falls
Which long stood undefeated and tall
We feel an odd sadness, vulnerability
Injury upon our sense of stability
It is also the reason why
When a Sinner repents, beyond the Sky
The Angels are moved to their very core
And rejoice like never before…
It’s easy to read the future
Too often it mirrors the past
Yet leave a little room for error
For the human heart is vast.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ODE TO THE FLOWER
Human beings can be very unjust
Because some are mean and some are blind
But she teaches me to ever trust
In the victory of love true and kind
She flows with the rhythm silently
And subtly sets the tone
She fulfils something for everybody
Until each feels she is their own
She flows, stands, dances, hovers
She softens hunters and strengthens gatherers
She makes Knights of all her lovers
And Kings out of gardeners
She defeats deserts of both soil and heart
She is an oasis all on her own
She awakens new worlds, reawakens that part
Of me that has turned into stone.
Be ever on the look-out for her
Like a watchman from his tower –
Protest her when you see her; thus will you know her:
She who flows is the flower
She opens her heart for all to drink
Who bear the natural thirst,
She expresses what all lovers think
Because she was the first
An irresistible smile is her crown
Radiating unselfishly,
She lifts my spirits when I am down
She gives unceasingly
She arrests with her quiet dignity
She‘s humbly proud, yet vulnerable
She is the salvation of the concept of purity,
Accessible but unsoilable
She is Natural, normal, ordinary
A caring, healing gem
She flows with her lovers’ and guardians’ story
Encourages, comforts, ennobles them
She awakens tears and gentle smiles
Just by being there;
Beautiful above all transient styles,
A beauty always and fair
Her lovely whiff, caught from afar
Releaser of the deepest sighs
She is a mirror of heaven’s star
Lights up my soul and eyes
She’s nature’s victory over human art
Mightier than pen and sword
She speaks deeply to the human heart
Without saying a word
And has one distinct feminine feature:
In her grace lies her power.
She FLOWS with the currents of nature
That’s why she’s called the FLOWER…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE MOON IS IT
I cherish the sight
I cherish the night
Moon-crowned… moon-found
The Poetry is so profound
That strikes the Deep
Out of its Sleep
When the fortnight is twice over turned
And the Full-Moon has returned.
I hear the lone wolf again
From the stillness of the deep and the pain
Howling from out of my Heart…
Howling from out of my Heart…
The moon…
The moon…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
AND THERE WAS LIFE
Believe unsanctimoniously
Burn robustly
Brave love. It is all we’ve got.
A tree gnome
Is mightier than his tree
For his tree is but his shadow.
When you serve love
You become a master of the universe.
And cease to be a shadow.
’Tis no cliché
God actually said “Let there be Love”
But we heard let there be light…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
AND YOU SHALL FIND
Nothing that comes, unspoiled
From the spirit
Is empty
It might take people two decades
Or two centuries
Or two millennia to understand it
But they will
Because, like an immortal light
The deeper the darkness
The brighter the flame
Until, one day
People take notice, stop, and ask…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ODE TO POETRY
I’ve been biting like a volcano
Poetry has been crying lava
I’ve been biting hard
Stop! Stop bleeding me! Stop breaking me!
I want your nipple
Your lip, your ruthless restless tongue
Your thigh
And above it, your most tender secret
I want to reveal it, stop starving me.
The eruption was a corruption
Of merciful silence.
You should never have woken me up.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
DISREGARDING YOURSELF
Do you fear yourself?
Or are you in awe,
In awe of you?
Or do you think yourself
But little and poor
And powerless too?
Think not of yourself
But of your goals
And deepest dreams…
And you will find yourself
Fulfilling even roles
Beyond whole teams.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 