And this a wanderer said to me
The mountains will awaken mountains in you
And the rivers will make a more thoughtful
Traveller of you.
The seasons will change you as frequently
As they change – and your new selves
Will not remember the person
You used to be.
And when you come back home again,
Sadness, quietness and joy will overcome you
And everything you left on the road
Will be as a dream.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I carry with me only a pouch of hope
A flinch of salt for my daily bread
My shadows falter; my wings, they grope
For space, where seekers dread to tread
My sandals are poised to strike the sand
A grain of pain is universe
But when I prise open deep my hand
The lines of blessing write off any curse
In leaps and bounds my mountains guide me
When the moon is barking, my shadows hide me
Pauselessly, hard, intuitions ride me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is no easy way
To walk through every valley
Without tasting any fruit
Without tasting any fruit
Propensity plays a gentle lute
Curiousity owns a magic flute
Temptation gnaws at your root
Intuition is loud, intuition is mute.
Who can know without taking a bite?
Who can grow without experiencing the night?
Some nights will yield the day
Some nights will kill the day
When does a want become a need?
When does a hunger morph into greed?
Is a sin a fruit or a seed?
A thought is sometimes worse than a deed.
There is a green hill far away
Your feet are confused: to go or to stay?
Who can walk through the valley of the root
Without tasting any fruit?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Works that stay
And show the way
To travelling spirits
On the right road
Long after I myself have passed
This way.
Not works of vanity
Nor dance of insanity
But honesty to my spirit
Who drank whilst thirsty
And knows the source of eternal water
The Grail’s Fountain.
Some seek politics
Some seek academics
Some believe in race issues
Some ideology or religion
And many will seek only pleasure
And self.
But through history
An inner mystery
Occupies all human spirits
It doesn’t die or fade –
The urge to know the true meaning of
The chalice, the stone, the mystery, the fountain,
The beginning, the origin, the genesis, the portal, the Grail.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
So the sun is yellow today
See that?
There – above the dark grey clouds
Beyond the mists and fog –
See that?
There – outside the boundary of your brooding thoughts
Beyond the clutches of your sorrow
If you look through your depression –
So plain to see,
The corner of your unsmiled smiles
Tugging at your lips
Lifting your lids – look, look
Above the tree tops in the jungle of your sadness –
Don’t you see?
The sun is golden yellow today.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When they seek bread
You hesitate to speak
Of the bread of life
For they look you in the eye
And say
Can’t you see that I’m hungry?
How can you make
The spirit strong
When the body is still so weak?
And so you fall silent
And wait with the rest,
For the rest, in peace…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There will be brief sudden moments
Of big aching dreams, they will
Tear you out of darkest despair
Remind you of the throbbing urge
That is your second heart.
An unexpected warm sunny day in winter
That seems to say: Shivering spark, I am
Summer’s promise sent ahead of time
An emissary of hope, here to remind
You to keep the faith.
Strengthened by quietness
You face the dark, and you laugh
And you say: Deep, you are my cocoon
The womb of midnight wonder, from which
I shall emerge, your secret butterfly.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He was my best friend
Yet when we parted
None gave news to the other
Of the path he charted
Where one went high
The other went low
And where one learned to lead
The other learned to follow.
She was a wild flower
But deep in her soul
She was a gentle morning
That made people whole
She fell in love with one
Then met the other
And fell for him too
Like he was her lover
Torn between a leader
And a follower
She learned with surprise that the higher
Is indistinguishable from the lower
The hunter is the hunted
The writer is the reader
The leader and the follower
Are both follower and leader.
He was my best friend
And though we walked separate ways
Destiny brought us together
Back to the same place.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I sat under a tree
Waiting for me
To come back to me
And while I was there
Two friends came to share
With me their hope and fear
A couple healthy and young
Who for long did long
To right a secret wrong
Early in their union
Confused they had given
A baby away for adoption.
And now though they try
And love and long and cry
The womb stays barren and dry
They’ve traced now doggedly
And found the family
Where their child grows happily
Today from afar
They saw them pass in a car
Saw how happy they are
Then sadly, quietly
They walked to the tree
Where I sat waiting for me.
And so did we three
Reflect thoughtfully
On history and destiny
And then we took heart
Upped and did depart
With courage and hope in our hearts.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A gentle feeling of lullaby
A soothing wave, a beast asleep
A little child is passing by
Why does it weep?
Tears as large as sun and moon
Bright as heart, dark as dream
Butterfly trapped in a cocoon
Life is vanishing cream
We spend our youth growing old
Learning sophistication, hardening up
The night grows empty, proud and cold
Saddening up.
But precious moments will come sometimes
A tear, a thought, a child’s pure heart
A Memory, a bell that suddenly chimes
And tears your heart apart
Those who find the child again
Do so because they looked again
Through clouds of lies and inner pain
And wiped its tears of pain
And became normal again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 