You had to go to hell
To get the truth
After your ejected it
In heaven.
Don’t you know?
That’s the way it works
My friend
Hope you get it now.
Hell is Heaven’s secret school.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HEAVEN
EMPTY AGAIN
In heaven
I saw birds
Even blackbirds
So I wrote
This poem
Which is just words
And when I was done
And looked up
It was an empty sky.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WHEN BIRDS TOUCH HEAVEN
When birds touch heaven
All we hear is
Music
And the music
Melts away the frozen tears
In my eyes
And my heart aches for you
But what is done is gone
Heaven and bird and wishing star
Where are you?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
CLOSURE
They say a time will come
When upon this earth
Evolution will girdle its gains
Back again around its girth
Many a wondrous tree
That we cherish and deeply love
Will, year by year, with time
Evolving slow dissolve
Many a beloved animal
Continents, rivers, plateaux
Even man, the so-called crown
Yes, our body too will go
And one day, even she
Heaven’s gate and heaven’s door
The lovely lovely rose
On earth will be no more.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
CHRISTMAS COMING
The night raised its dark heavy head
And sniffed long at the wind
And then lit up with a thousand smiles
As though it had never ever sinned
Imagine that. The sinful night
And when I asked it to tell me why
It said in a gentle voice of hope
While pointing up into the eastern sky:
Once upon a time, it was
More than two thousand years ago
A radiant star appeared right there
And over a manger there glowed a halo
And thus did hope return to mankind.
And, o little poet, in a few days’ time
We celebrate again the birthday
Of the Love that inspires your deepest rhyme.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
image: Gellinger/Pixabay.
EVENING SKY
I love the sky in the evenings when my spirit is free of ambitions and pressures, conniving tensions, expectations and all those things that seem important. Money, power, fame, renown, popularity, accolade, comfort, praise and other dungeons of the human spirit. Wars of words and weapons. The desire to be better than my neighbour and be seen as being better. It all means nothing now. In this moment of having nothing, I have everything. The vast evening sky becomes small enough to fit into my quiet soul. Good evening, earth. Heaven calling.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ONE SONG
If music is the universal language
Then who will teach
Me how to interpret
For example, say,
The language of the stars
The language of water
The body-language of true lovers
The language unspoken
And the language unheard…?
If music be the universal language
How come no-one hears
The songs of heaven
That are sung in celestial gardens
And descend into the earth every new day?
Or, if we hear
How come we do not understand?
It is very strange
This strange communication gap
Because everywhere I turn
Every sound is music
And every language is a song
More or less forgotten
More or less alive.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 