They say a time will come
When upon this earth
Evolution will girdle its gains
Back again around its girth
Many a wondrous tree
That we cherish and deeply love
Will, year by year, with time
Evolving slow dissolve
Many a beloved animal
Continents, rivers, plateaux
Even man, the so-called crown
Yes, our body too will go
And one day, even she
Heaven’s gate and heaven’s door
The lovely lovely rose
On earth will be no more.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Like a cow
Eschewing its thoughts
The worship bells
Choked my throat
Penned me to my pagy leaf
Sunday mournings
Have my sins been so many?
Stop confessing guiltily
What you profess so
Guiltlessly.
Monday is the new Sunday.
If you want to meet God,
Look for Him on Monday –
On Sunday, Saturday and Friday He is far far away,
Tired of our hypocrisy.
-Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When you feel the thing
Most sought
The thing most loved
The thing most needed
The thing most sensed, most uncomprehended
The thing most yours
Approaching you…
Do not walk faster
Do not let over-excitement hurry you
Do not abandon your rhythmic pace
As you reach out to grab it
But just keep on moving
Steadily back Home.
We wander, we wander, we wander…
Everywhere we wander –
Never hurrying
Never worrying
Never tarrying
Ever merrying.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I have heard that a new star
Is coming…
I hear it every time I return to the
Earth –
Somebody wrote it down a long time
Ago –
And everytime I reincarnate
I am confronted anew with the fact
Of the coming of a new star
A radiant star brighter than the sun
Filled with the power of all the seven heavens…
I have seen this Star.
I saw it once before I was born
I saw it from atop a Mountain before I was unborn
And I have no doubt that one day
It will have come much too close to the earth
For us to be able to do any other thing
Than burn down, burn up or become eternally burning flames
Of spiritual light, paradisiacal fire
Beyond the understanding of a new generation
And a new earth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The vast spaces of silence
Within a human heart
The sky is not vast enough
To engulf this silence
The sea is itself absorbed and lost
Within this silence
Where are the stars?
Where are all the stars?
The stars are so numerous
Yet see all those vast unlit spaces
In the night-sky
The sky is dark
But my heart is vaster
And as the silence spreads and spreads
And engulfs my Soul
The light is lit
See, see, the light is doubly lit…!
Silence. There is this silence
Inside my heart
And she told me it was simple love –
Together we stand.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
My pain plays with me
My pain stays with me
My pain prays with me
When I pray…
My pain visits me
My pain kisses me
My pain teaches me
How to pray…
I forget you, I forget me
I have to, because without you and without me
I know no pain, even when I pray.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Give me you.
Before you begin to wonder
What you are, remember
That each star and each season
Is nature’s gift for a reason
And you, dear spirit, your blossoming heart
Is spirit’s gift to the gift of art
It is the art of being you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I saw a bell
Fall under the spell
Of a magic wand
In a magician’s hand
And he turned the bell into a man
Walking up and down the land
Ringing out a message to everyone
But only a few will understand
I tell you what.
Affiliation to nationality and religion, gender, class and race
Will always be more important to the human race
Than being human, our common lot.
So now the bells, they are ringing
The hearts, they are singing
The times, they are bringing
A Message of Hope.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Good morning, Quietness,
I remember how with surprise
I felt your absence last night.
And did I thirst for you? First I thrashed about wildly,
Clutching at every suggestion of you,
Then, exhausted, like a leopard I crouched, still,
And lay in wait for you – awake, listening,
Until the morning came… My life rolled before my inner eyes,
Awakening you from the depths of my heart –
Good morning, Quietness, as I fall asleep at last.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is a bird
Crying outside my window
In the woods
An echo of loneliness within me…
Every few seconds
A lonesome wail
Haunting, detached, a hall of sorrows
An abandoned lover
A brother alone
A wanderer in the woods of life
Between the trees and the dark leaves
Beneath the reach of the sun…
I hear your call
Partner
I feel you, I feel you well.
The glass is dark
The mirror within is a bird outside
I never see but always hear
For I carry the sorrow within.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 