birth

REFLECT BEFORE CELEBRATE

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

Why was I born? Why were you born?
Into this Earth.

My birthday always makes me think. This year more than ever, I don‘t know why. The questioning thought: Everything I‘ve done in the last 48yrs, have they in any way really fulfilled the reason WHY I WAS BORN? Or have I up until now, in a deep subtle way, just been wasting my time? For I was not born in order to celebrate that birth annually. Viewed logically, that‘s a senseless feedback loop – unless augmented, nay, superseded, by a PURPOSE – and the fulfilment of that purpose – of my birth into this earth.

49 years ago, I was not here. I was not a part of this daily hustle and bustle, getting into cars and busses, voting in elections, raising kids, being earthy and doing the earthly. So, where was I? And why did I come here? Where were you before you were born? And why did you come here?

Every year the certainty that I‘m closer to my earthly death, to my departure. I just feel it, so strongly. That reduced distance. It‘s not just a piece of general knowledge that we all have: Everybody dies one day. Yes we all know this. But it is more than this. It‘s also a solid emotional perception, a physical presence that comes closer, that you can feel when you close your eyes and pay attention.

My birthday makes me think, not just of birth, but also of death.

My brother, Kwame, aged 19, died on my 21st birthday. It was a few weeks before his own 20th birthday. The person closest to me. Why did he come? Did he or did he not fulfil the purpose of it? And then he was gone again. It‘s a date we share, in life and death.

Life existed before we were born into it. It was perfect, already. Before we were created, Creation was already formed and perfect. This realisation makes me think and there is no end to this reflection. Just a clear line of perception – an intuitive perception:

You are not without a reason and not without a purpose, unless you fail – consciously or unconsciously – to discover that reason and that purpose; and then to – deliberately or instinctively – fulfil that reason and that purpose.

It‘s a serious and thought-provoking business meeting your birthday again, and still not knowing why. Or knowing if you’re fulfilling why, as best as you can. Year after year.

I don‘t need to celebrate my birthday. I need to reflect upon it.

Reflect before celebrate.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
06. April 2022

Little Che – mid 1970s.

THE RELIGION OF MUSIC

~ Che

For a long time, decades,
I forgot about the power of music
I stopped believing that music can
Change the world.

It is easy to stop believing it
Because many people also do not really believe it
And so everywhere around you, people agree with you
In a gentle cynical sad way

But there is something greater than belief
It is Knowledge. Memory. New experiencing –
Conviction. Re-cognition. It comes upon you when music
Changes your world and brings you back to life
Inside you again –
This is what Music does to everything.

Then you become a believer again
And a disciple and a missionary of
The Religion of Music.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

NO LAWS CAN SAVE A NATION

~ Che

The simplicity of reality
Drag me down to earth
Some mistakes can be corrected
Only through death and rebirth

But it takes even more strength
To live with your unrectified error
And if you can no longer change your path
Then go it with virtue and valour

The outer Change is not as important
As the inner Transformation
If individuals stay inwardly corrupt
No laws can save a Nation

And when you lose your fear
Of mockery and condescension
You’ll see that most People are simply Followers
For fear of ostracization.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

REFLECTIONS ON TRANSITION

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

The earth is the mother
And the physical body the womb
In which the soul incubates and grows
Before birth into the beyond.

Each time we on earth are born
We have but been sunk
As a seed into a surrogate mother’s womb
To grow there a little strong.

Death is but the midwife
Dying the throes of labour and pain
Someone misses you each time you are born
Something receives you back at death again.

And all the things you did on earth
Shall be as a dream in the womb
So heed your spirit even while in the flesh
For it alone remembers its home.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

NATION

~ Che ~ 13 Comments

Nation must dig deep into
The luminous garden of soul
For new spirits must incarnate

Nation must dig deep into
The forgotten regions of soul
For sleeping spirit must awake

If we don’t change inside
Nothing will change outside.
We will merely pile up academic degrees.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

UNCONVENTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

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Human characters incarnate
And re-incarnate.

Each stay on another Earth is but
A continuation.

It is limited by time and
Saturated by responsibility.

There is a task…

– this is the objective happening,
always to be borne in mind.

The key to fulfilment is Love,
Always to be borne in Heart.

You running and you running and you running away,
Sang Mr. Bob Marley

But you can’t run away from yourself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..

APRIL

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Her glance was taffeta
Smoothed down my trembling hands
Smoothed down my trembling hands
Oh morning glory
Oh these tremors have passed and
I’m asleep again on a Saturday morning
In the birth cradle of April.

Fresh rain, burgundy tears sprinkle sun, sprinkle dawn
Rainbows, silver and gold fingers
Then palmgreen sprouting hope hope
Then palmgreen sprouting hope.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

OMEN REVERSED

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His demons
Come straight from hell
Chase him everyday
He remembers the cries of the women
Children and all the others
Victims of his guns of war
The land is silent now
His conscience is loud
The demons won’t go away
They want to take him with them
Back to hell where he belongs.

The last thing he did
Before he disappeared into the depths of hell
Was to pray
Oh yeah he sent up a prayer
Of apology – no plea for mercy – just apology
For all the victims of his merciless guns
Before he with a bold heart faces his demons
And yes the demons
Dragged him down with them
To the bowels of hell
Where his evil had created them

And that was the last that was seen of him
And that was the last that was seen of him

Thousand of years have passed…

But now when I look I see
An angel hovering over the pits of hell
Looking for him, calling him, waiting for him…
Will he rise out again? You’ve done your time.
Rise up, rise up, repentant spirit
From out the pits of hell
Where you no longer belong
Come back to Earth and do it differently this time –

Birth. Rebirth.
A new child is born
An old soul has come back again
Do it better this time

Save lives, brother
Save lives, brother
Love they neighbour, man

A little child
I see it in your eyes
You’ve got a heart of gold
Knowing and old
Full of the mission to do something good

A little child
I see it in your eyes
Exorcism of the demons of old

Save lives, sister
Save lives, sister
Love they neighbour, woman.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DAWN

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I feel dawn
Like a song
I hear
Not with an outer ear

Like a light
Long before rosy twilight

Like an intuition
A budding perception
A forgetting
And a remembering

Like new birth
Upon the earth.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WALK YOUR OWN PATHS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Don’t follow
When the road is hollow
Which they ply –
In your heart is sky.
The answer will sound in your heart
Long after your mother and I depart
Run your immortal run
A time once upon,
You my daughter and you my son.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.