A foolish student
Will one day become a wise teacher
An unyielding sinner
Will one day become a moving preacher
The gap that yawns in you today
Will be filled by the pain of growth
Perfection and Imperfection may look like opposites
But when they arise in you, embrace them both
Because you don’t know which is which
Who is really poor and who is really rich.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
There was a girl
the fruit of her labour
Was the world
With a cry of pain and a shout of joy
She gave birth to the world
And primitive was the world
Harsh the lips that burned her nipples
Rough the tongue that broke her word
And we’re still here today
The earth is still not enough
Mother has become a stranger
The outcasts have grasped their destiny.
-Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
No master gon’ willingly let a slave go
No oppressor gon’ willingly let the oppressed rise to his level
If you wan’ freedom, you gon’ take a blow!
The loss of property and means
The loss of power
The loss of status
Yea, the loss of status
Hurts like hell.
When you rise, it means that
Someone else is no longer higher
Than you and has to stomach that –
Remember that.
You gon’ pay a heavy price
Because everyone around you
Knows the value
Of self—elevation, knowledge and freedom
They will make you pay for it
If you’re really worth it.
The price of your freedom is their resistance.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A smile is a gift-wrapped heart
A heart is an unspoken smile
You grow on me
Windows open up too
A transparent pane of glass
I see you through
Houses head upward
But we speak one tongue
This time. We change hearts
Like we change lanes –
We grow on us.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Do not go too fast, do not go too slow, nor stop, nor stop to look back, nor look back, nor go back – walk on at a steady pace. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.
Do not love too far, do not love too near, love as you walk, walk as you love, forward calmly, forward calmly, nor be afraid of heartbreak. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.
Do not dream too much, do not dream too little, do not trust too quickly, do not trust too late, do not work too hard, do not work too soft, do not cry during the day, do not laugh in anybody’s face, do not expect that those whom you love also love you, do not expect that those whom you understand also understand you, do not assume that those whom you see not also do not see you, do not assume that those whom you love not also do not love you.
It is in your heart today, it is in your hands today. Forget the past, son, forgive everyone who ever hurt you, nor dream alone of goodness only in the future – Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.
The person who loves you the most is the last person you would think of. Love me, dear, please love me dear. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow. And if we let it slip away today, we will not and never find it again tomorrow, but will walk on lonely again, like yesterday.
If you love me like I know you do, please hold my hand forever.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The same song, the same gong
The same sound
It is all bound up in the same one
Concept –
I conceptualise, I discover, I am, I am not
I conceptualise, I know, I know not, I grow
A bell opened up and let out a melody
Ten thousand Songs, memory.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Some questions are young
Saplings lost in a world of mystery
Too soon despairing and coming to the conclusion
That some questions have no answers
Some answers are old
You have to journey the whole length to grasp them
From the mountain-top of distant insight
They watch the questions growing in the valley
Child, when I tell you you won’t understand
’Tis not folly on my part, seeing that you don’t understand
I say it to you not so that you’ll believe, accept or understand
But so that when it’s your turn you will remember
Remember that I told you that the answers come late
So despair not, thinking you’ve lived in vain
Despair not, ’tis the nature of life
To answer tomorrow the questions it posed yesterday
Today is its gift to you
That you may wander and seek by yourself
And wonder, and marvel, and err, lose, learn, and grow
And fear, and fight, and love, laugh, and live, and find and become yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 