The deepest pain I had
The loneliest shame
My most sacred joy, yet I share
My most personal hopes
I not only voice
But unclothe in poetry’s inner light
So you see
More than you wish to see
Because all true art is
A private experience.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Someone stood by my side
In that hour when
Self-confidence is asleep
And self-belief has lost its way
In that dark hour when
All you do is question yourself
Because phantoms and demons and ghosts
Are whispering in your head
It is the hour when thieves are about
Stealing your last bit of self-worth
Under the cover of darkness
Thieves are faceless and this they know
And she was my sun when there was no sun
And she was my strength when I fell
And in my hour of deepest doubt
She kept our faith.
But one more thing she did
She took a walk through my dark side
And left signposts along the way
And told me: This is also you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
What would the sky give
To uncage the clouds and set the rain free?
Everything she has; and yet
What’s the use?
You can set old secrets free
New ones will pile up inside again
For only what is hidden can set us free.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
This Poem was inspired by the Article: CONFESSIONS.
Happiness was close
Always close
A thought away
A recognition away
But that was always too far
For a young mind blinded
By too many choices
Too many voices.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Groupies gave you pleasure, but
Did not make you happy –
Only lonesomeness explained why
Too many moons kill the night
Too many moons spoil the dark
Pluck your moons one by one
From the autumn of imagination
One by one, let them rise
One by one, let them pass
In the absence of one
I had them all, but in truth
I walked with none
Talked with none, loved none
And the night was dark as day
And the night called a new moon
And night after night she grew
More and more beautiful as she
Slowly came, slowly stayed, slowly passed…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Two streams there are
Those who fall into the first
Find the waterfall of horizon.
Those who fall into the second
Forever fight against the current
That keeps them down, drowning…
And forever they’ll be unionists
Protesting against the upper classes
Who mock them from above.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
And we shall sing as though
There be no morning,
Hear the night sway softly along, my dear
My heart is trying to say something
But I’ve forgotten the language
Of my ancestors…
But when we sing, I remember
A time before Christmas and December
When red earth and green hill and blue sky
Were home enough for us.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I remember you
Almost everyday.
Do thoughts forget
Their creators? Heart
And common sense agree
In me that they never could.
I remember you daily.
Our childhood and youth
Made my heart what
It is today. And though
You’re gone who knows
Where in the Beyond,
Still my memories of you,
Brother, know no boundaries.
How many times did
We watch Joe Panther?
Little did we know that
We were watching our future.
For, like Tiger died and left Joe,
One of us would go
And the other would lonely stay.
And I remember how quietly
We sat, together, trying
To hold back and conceal
Our tears that first time
We watched La Bamba –
As if already then we knew
How it would one day feel.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
How deep is homogeneity?
Does the colour of our skin
Express our similarity
Or mask the differences within?
How deep is nationality?
Does the passport we share
Stamp an ideological ethnicity
Or is it convenience out of fear?
Some plant gardens of roses
Some love lilies alone
Another meadow composes
A bouquet of everyone
Who can say rose gardens
Are prettier than plains
That lilies alone gladden,
Or a field that all contains?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Don’t allow them to reduce you
To the picture they have of you
In the picture they have of themselves
Be proud of who you are
What you are, how you are
It is what the world needs
Stay. In your element, stay.
Be proud of who you are
But define it for yourself by yourself
Don’t be the canvas on whose back
They paint and admire themselves
And cover you up in the voiceless dark.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 