If we could see ourselves through Other people’s eyes, how much better We would know ourselves and them too. In the cold your gaze is a warm sweater And when I’m lonely and missing you Your eyes write me a wordless love letter. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
depth
A QUIET LIFE
A quiet life You come and you go And barely anyone noticed You or your halo. This distant planet The Earth she’s called You visited and then were Quietly recalled. Some people don’t talk much You don’t even know they’re there But their hearts are deep And full of care. But their hearts are deep And full of care Treasure the quiet ones While they’re still here. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
NON-MATERIAL THINGS
How frail the body
How it ages
And falls to sickness prey
And life is as a day…
If you send me pictures and reports
Of you enjoying material things
And hope to thereby impress me
Or make me envious
Would you still have the depth of perception to understand
That I pity you?
Send me a greeting to say
How are you? I wish you well…
Then will I see therein your Height
Like an arrow to the heart
That humbles and heals my Spirit.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
MUSICIANS
When the sadness
Coloured the smile
Of the musician’s sunshine
I saw that his joy
Had just got deeper
And the unshed tears
Longing in his eyes
Were less bitter
Than they were bittersweet
To my ears
Music to my heart
Water to my soul – his sorrow
Became the joy of my spirit flame.
That was when I saw him smile
That broke my heart.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
NEED
One land’s poor man
Is another land’s rich man
It’s all relative
How many meals do you need to be hungry?
One school’s teacher
Is another school’s student
It’s all relative
How much knowledge do you need to be ignorant?
One court’s free man
Is another court’s prisoner
It’s all relative
How many laws do you need to have injustice?
One era’s inventor
Is another era’s copycat
It’s all relative
One religion’s wise man
Is another religion’s fool
It’s all relative
One heart’s sorrow
Is another heart’s happiness
It’s all relative
One man’s woman
Is another woman’s man
It’s all relative
One nation’s outcast
Is another nation’s promised helper.
It all depends
On what you need
Some want the flesh of the fruit
Some crave its inner seed.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
MY POETRY BENCH
There is a graveyard thence
With benches placed all over
Where people come a-steady
To ponder life and death
There is a certain bench
Apart from every other
Where I sit when poetry
Takes clean away my breath.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
FIFTH DIMENSION
I’m not talking
To the part of you you can control
With your thinking
Switch off and on in your soul
Two conversations run parallel
Unaware of one another
Just like politics debates but can’t foretell
Human laws of spirit and nature
Bend my mind and bend me back
When you leave, leave your truth behind
Worlds and worlds and worlds of meaning
That nourish slowly my mind.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SCANDALOUS
It is love.
You cannot
Mathematize it.
It will
Mesmerize
Scandalize
Legalize
Illegalize
And always leave Questions
Behind.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
AND YOU SHALL FIND
Nothing that comes, unspoiled
From the spirit
Is empty
It might take people two decades
Or two centuries
Or two millennia to understand it
But they will
Because, like an immortal light
The deeper the darkness
The brighter the flame
Until, one day
People take notice, stop, and ask…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WISE SAYINGS AND ORDINARY PEOPLE
A stitch in time saves nine. –
Where are the nine in need of salvation if the one has already been saved? Find one good person in Sodom and Gomorrah, and destruction will be stayed – one good person. Just one. Is there a good person on earth?
All that glitters is not gold. –
Why aren’t they all gold if they all glitter like gold? And why does gold glitter, were it not also gold? Gold glitters because it is gold. But humans glitter because they are not gold. Good people are silent, walking unnoticed. Golden hearts do not require additional glitter to shine. The shine inside.
In November, trees and people reveal who they really are. –
In the eleventh hour, the power of humans to deceive shall begin to fail, and Creation’s autumn shall brutally strip all naked and cold, and we shall see ourselves as we are. If I deceive you, I will come naked to you tomorrow, asking for warmth. Please clothe me.
Every saying is wise, but it would be very unwise of their poets to presume themselves in any way to be sages or wise people. That would be foolishness.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 