Don’t get lost in the dark Wait for the mist to clear The emotions never speak the truth They are always informed and biased by feelings You just have to wait for the mist to clear It takes a shorter or longer time to pass Depending on your nature And depending on the circumstances Just don’t get lost in the dark. Azuka Chukwumerije
hope
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
For whom shall I write now? For whom shall I fight now? Who shall shine the light now That illuminates my heart? Lovers don’t turn into friends, They turn into strangers. Life the gardener tends Both safeties and dangers. But when November ends, December births mangers And shines new light to my heart. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
PASSING RIFFS
Little moments of life In the corners of strife Little stripes of light Hidden out of sight Hope is a melody, a song Where we all belong Sing along, old and young. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
YOU MUST BE PATIENT
There will be hope But the heart must cope First with a season Of conflict sans reason This moon is long faced And tied to a dead sea Rolling scrolls misplaced By startled history. You must be patient Time is clairaudient It hears your heart beating And your footfalls repeating The dance to victory. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
HOPE TO BE FOUND
Line your pockets with seeds of hope Find purpose when you secretly grope through your hidden emotions, touch one, touch all, no emotion is too much, no matter how intense. The deeper the grip, the closer it is to the reaper - And you are the reaper of what you sow. Empty your pockets of what you know As you walk the road leave a flower trail The Grail finds you if you seek the Grail. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SEEING THROUGH
One of the downsides of seeing through humanity
Is that nothing inspires or excites you anymore
Or fills you with a sense of expectation…
Because you always bear the sad certainty
Within you
Of knowing how things are going to end.
One of the upsides of seeing through humanity
Is that nothing disappoints and shocks you anymore
Or fills you with a sense of hopelessness…
Because you always bear the the quiet recognition
Through experiencing
Of knowing that things always re-start.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
ETERNAL SUNRISE
When the Darkness wakes up in the morning, the first thing it does is to look out of the window, see the Light shinning outside – and become full of anger, envy and rage all over again.
Because yesterday when night fell and it went to sleep, it made the great mistake of thinking that the Light is now dead.
The Light is never dead. It will rise again. It is we who turn our backs on it.
But it will rise again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
There’ll Be Help Along The Way (LIVE)
Live @ Summa Summarum Musikkeller Frankfurt 14.02.18
(V.1):
I remember
When the news hit me back in September
Daddy’s going home
Father father
Tell us will this be our last December?
Speak a word of hope
(CHORUS 1):
There’ll be storm and there’ll be rain
There’ll be tears and there’ll be pain
Keep on striving night and day
There’ll be help along the way
Those who have no fear to fail
Are the ones who never fail
Though they fall they’ll rise again
There’ll be help along the way
… way way way along the way
(V.2):
Have a vision
Live you life with purpose and a mission
Never never give up
Stick together
Be your brothers’ and your sister’s keeper
And keep your faith in God
(CHORUS 2):
When old friends have gone away – (way)
And new friends don’t feel the same – (same)
Yet stay on your lonely lane – (lane)
There’ll be help along the way –
Heaven helps who help themselves – (selves)
Don’t keep doubtig your success – (cess)
Just be faithful to your fate
There’ll be help along the way
… way way way along the way
(SAX SOLO)
(CHORUS 3):
Sometimes at the very start
The road you have to go looks hard
Just set off and just be brave
There’ll be help along the way
It’s no shame to be afraid
But don’t let it make you brake
’Cause in unexpected ways
Oh, there’ll be help along the way…
– Words/Music: Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BELIEF
Sometimes when you kill a person, he keeps on living because he does not know that you have killed him. He keeps on living because he believes in you and it is this belief that keeps him alive. Until the day he learns that you already killed him, long ago. Then he dies.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE PRESENCE
NEWLY THE sun shone anew. Happy the multitude was to see again their surroundings. But where were they? A no-land. Only space and space and space. But no footprints and not a voice on the wind.
We seek the voices, we hear the silence. The multitude is faced with the choice – to turn inwards or to turn outwards. The multitude turned inwards and became a nation. Generations later, the nation turned outwards and faced the world.
Thus was the first Pride born. For the nation was too much for the world.
Let us leave the world and the nation, the multitude, the space and the silence, and look at the street. A busy street. Hawkers, traders, pedestrians, beggars, jam the sidewalks. Busses, cars, motorcycles, cram the roads.
Above them, an unsmiling face, almost but not as large as the sky, looks down guardingly upon them. The face is not the face of a loving protector, that much can be deduced from its features. It is the face of a prison warden. Emotionless and evil. Because the prison is his.
A face turns upwards. One of the people on the street has a strange sensation hard to describe. She looks up, sees the face, screams and collapses. People walk by her. Others stop. She is dead. They cross themselves, mutter prayers and walk away.
Let us go back to the nation. The nation has arisen. It is all-powerful. It runs like a well-oiled machine, a high-tec computer. It shut itself out of the world for generations. It let nothing in, not even nature. Now it is ready to face the world. It towers over the rest of the world and opposes all who seek to break away from this new sway.
Others raise their gazes too, see the face of the guardian of evil. They collapse and die too, just like the woman. But the souls of the dead have risen too, they mingle amongst the living and strengthen invisibly their resolve. And sometimes now when I look up at the giant face of the prison-guard in the dark dark clouds above us, I see a slightly worried look in his eyes. Things are going wrong. He feels it. But he cannot put his finger on it.
Why are people looking up?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 