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.
Poetry
THE ONE
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.
CLASS DIVIDE (I)
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.
YELLOW SUN
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.
AS IF ALREADY WE KNEW
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.
GROUPS OF US
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.
THE VOICELESS DARK
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.
AUTUMN WAKE
Yield
Like the fields
Do yield
A piece of you
For the season of ripening
Is upon your feet.
All your old sins, and new too
All your old fears are new too
Even your old hopes will become new
Strengths, thoughts and dreams
Have rested long enough, it seems
Have rested long enough, it seems
Yield
Like the fields
Do yield
A multitude of fruits and roots
And all were offshoots
Of just one seed
So, yield to your need
And be the seed
And the fruit
And be the answer today
To the question you asked yesterday
Become one with your longing.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HOPE
I saw hope, lost
On the hills, amnesiac
And she was
Looking for hope.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
FUNDAMENT
Let us be a little quiet
For the night is quiet
And still are our thoughts
That hurry on ahead of us
And in the quietness, let us
Reach each into the other
Let us for one moment be
Each a visitor within the other
Let us touch the fundamental thought
Something that is valid
On every plane, in every world
On every earth, in every Beyond
Something that is true in life
And true in death, true in hell
And true in heaven – the one thing
That is always true, everywhere.
The essence of our humanity
The substance of our spirit
The kingdom within, joy, gratitude
Simplicity, honesty, love. Especially, love.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 