hope

THERE’LL BE HELP ALONG THE WAY (VIDEO)

Video ~ ~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I did not blog at all in 2014/2015 about the illness and death of my father. It was, still is, too deep. But I wrote a song with his words of advice – “There’ll Be Help Along The Way” – which captures everything he gave, and means, to me.

One of the most imprtant things his death did to me was to remind me that life is short. Do the most important things first. So I started making and recording Music again. And I ended up with my first Album in many years, called FIRST NATURE.

YouTube: Che – There’ll Be Help Along The Way

(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…

(FINAL AD-LIBS):
Oooh.. along the way
Children Children (there’ll be help along the way)
There’ll be help along the way…. (there’ll be help along the way)
Help along the way
There’ll be help along, there’ll be help along the Way…

_ _ _ _

(Words/Music: Che Chidi Chukwumerije)

MEMORY OF A HIDDEN TREASURE

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

I know I’ll never have it
It will never be my lot

I know I’ll always want it
It will always be my thought

I know I’ll forever have it
It will forever be all I’ve got

If I seek hard and seek right and seek long for it
It will elude me not, my seeking won’t come to nought

But if I die before I find it
Please, somebody, seek what I sought
And, when you find it, tell it
About me who sought for it
And found it not.

————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–

WE ARE FRIENDS

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Not because of what you did
Or did not do…

Not because of what you said
Or failed to say…

Not because of what you know
Or never came to know…

But because in your eyes I espy
A certain thing
Which I cannot immediately define
But by which I have hope
That you will be the important one in my life…

Patience.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SHE WAS A WEIGHTLIFTER

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She was a weightlifter
They found it unseemly
But she was a shape-shifter
Their disdain was a lighter burden to bear
Than her fate.

Slum lady. Carried mud and bricks
Bore stones and sticks
Firewood, rusted water in weeping baskets
The stretch marks of impatient thirsty men
Bunched up her muscles.

Owned by all, never owned a thing
The madams’ slaps, the masters’ secrets
Nothing was too heavy a load to carry
To snatch, to clean, to jerk off –
Each jerk. Very ordinary.

Today, when she steps out unto the mat
Under the lights, there you see
Sunset in one eye, sunrise in the other –
It’s not heavy weights she’s lifting
She’s carrying hope.

– 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.

HATRED AND HOPE

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Branded roses
Blood is your dance floor
Beast is the yeast of your flour
Your moist garden is the handle of my door
And your soup is dour.

I saw a stranger, dressed in black,
Quietly step back from your door –
I saw you, a black bird in grey skies
Flapping, rising
Hatred flaming in your chest like
A torn rose.

Yet I kissed you, don’t
Ask me why – your lips parted and I tasted
Hope on your tongue
Like a squirrel hiding in the bush.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOVE THOSE YOU HAVE TODAY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

So, your enemy
Disguised as a friend
Separated you from
Your real friend, in the end.

Well, it’s all good, it’s all good
Wear not regret as a crown of thorns
Love those you have today.

What use is the morning’s advice
If you understand it only in the evening,
When it’s too late
You think?
The day is already gone

Well, it’s all good, it’s all good
Love the night too
The moon is a growing sun.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

TENSE TIES

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The quiet is defeaning
It bursts your eardrums
Eery and foreboding

Who will make the first move?
Who will change sides?
What is really happening?

History, like a confused child
Keeps coming back home
Looking for its parents

History, like a boomerang
Circles and circles the raised hand
Waiting for peace and rest.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

COLOURS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

There are thoughts that define
And there are thoughts that defy…

There are hearts that deny
Hearts that desire
And hearts that never run dry –

And there are hearts
That run dry –
But I won’t cry.

There were thoughts that struck me
Thoughts that thunderstruck me
And left me dumbstruck –
These are the thoughts that stuck to me…

But if we say sometimes yes
Sometimes no
Sometimes…
Yes sometimes no sometimes yes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WEALTH OF POVERTY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

They shrink away instinctively
Disgustedly
From the poor
As though poverty were a disease

But even faster they
Avert their thought-sprinkled eyes
Nobody wants to see Shame
The shame mirrored within

Who is ashamed of whom?
Of what?
The rich is ashamed for being rich
The poor is ashamed for being poor

They both are ashamed of being
In the company of each other
One hopes the tides will turn
One fears the tides will turn.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.