It was autumn when we met
Trees were reddening
Leaves were falling
Hearts were aching to spill the truth
Autumn, autumn
Cooler nights
Autumn, autumn
Mistier heights
It was autumn when we met
Days were shortening
Eyes were focusing more sharply
On every strange new thing –
To discern the whole truth
Before the snow-blanket
Stored any promises
About to be made –
Diamonds and promises are forever.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Blessed are the silent
For they shall hear it first…
Blessed are the silent
For they shall hear it first.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
In everybody’s deepest heart
Towering and strange
A something which no map can chart
And beyond every range
The mountain of longing
This must be love, this must be love
Immortally the same
Through every mile of earth it dove
Seeking nor friend nor fame
Out in the distant sea it grows
Re-calling you and me
Out in the distant fields it snows
On in infinity
This must be life, this must be life
This must be where we were
You are my heart, my joy, my wife
Here, there and everywhere…
The mountain of longing.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The tree you planted in my heart
Has grown strong…
The longer we remain apart
The more to each other we belong…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
It must be hard for you
To be the subject
– or is it the object?
or is it the heart? –
Of so many poems.
When you stumble, remember:
I love you and you love me
Even if there be no poems
Even if there be no songs
No mountains, no photos, no words…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The years have raced by
Yet our story is not begun
Two hearts cannot cry
Without reason, and upon
My heart I see the snowclad valley again
The mist, the promise, the joy and the pain
And I know it simply
Surely and firm
Our river runs deeply
Unbroken, fullterm
Be not afraid to follow yon distant star
Until you love me, you won’t know who you are.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There she perches, haunted…
The ruins of a castle once loved;
Haunted by love…
There she perches, haunted…
The ruins of a castle once loved;
Haunted by love…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A few birds still twitter
Even when the woods are cold
And when a gentle wind blows
And the autumn leaves russle
Hush hush
Around my ears
Then my years drop away again
Back to the beginning
And rush ahead once more to the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
It is her voice that buckles my knees
When she breaks and says please
I break and say please
This is the power of a woman
I can match her strength
But her power makes me powerless.
She might not know everything about me
But she knows the thing about me
That weakens and conquers and strengthens and completes me
This is the power of a woman
It is the power of insight
Because she came from inside.
Learn well this lesson:
Strength is what you have inside you
Power is what you have inside another person
Even when that person is stronger than you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He was a messenger from far away
This thought that I secretly caught
And wonderful tidings he brought my way
Of all the secret things I still ought
Nay, must, do, must do
To you, my dear, to you.
But this he whispered first of all
That I must meet another stranger first
And secretly yield to his inner call
He lives in me, my root intuition’s thirst
For my secret powers become free
Only after I first become me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 