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.
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.
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.
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.
The head can forget what it vowed to remember
But the heart remembers even that
Which it vowed to forever forget.
A memory which you want to keep forever
Store in the intuitive base of your heart
The head is curious but sometimes too clever –
Less meddlesome is the heart.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I’m tired of writing poems,
I want to be one.
– Che.
If there be a she
Where is she?
If there was a she
Where was she?
If there be a he
Which is he?
If there was a he
When was he?
If there be a we
What are we?
If there was a we
Wherefore were we?
If there be an I
Why am I?
If there is goodness in the human race
If there is love in the human heart
If there is hope in the human being
Why are we still not there
Where we once were
When we had goodness and love and hope
In our hearts
On our tongues
And as the work of our hands…?
If I have a friend
Please help me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
You’ve judged too soon
Go, take a second look
Sometimes you’ve got to give a little room for error
’Cause you can’t always be too sure –
Don’t spare yourself a second look
Read it again – life’s just a book.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
When sheep undress
They become wolves
When wolves undress
They become sheep
Unclothing less
Reveals more
Of why we laugh
When we weep.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I know you’re waiting for me to come
You know I’m waiting for you to become –
How long?
An upturned Calabash hides something
A broken mirror is still a mirror
A song unsung – is it a song?
A loveless soul – is it a soul?
When lovers part, are they still lovers?
Have they learnt how to love
Or forgotten how to love a little?
Upsidedownworld.
Turn it upsideupanddownsidedown
But leave the middle in the middle.
The world grows quiet quietly
A lone car passes now and then
A dog barks gently, night falls lightly
And the studio condenses around me again.
Who was I thinking of just now?
Where was I before evening called me back?
A heart is a thousand stories
And forgotten memories.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 