There is in me a longing
For a place
A longing which no place on earth
Can satisfy
Because I long for Home –
There is in me a yearning
For a love
A yearning which no human love
Can satisfy
Because I yearn for the Light –
But, on the other side of
The mountain peak
There is a woman to whom my
Heart belongs…
But there she is, beyond my reach
Just a tear away –
But I do not know how to cry.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
What you see is but a mask, not a face, not the true face, but a mask, a facade, masking the first mask, the true mask which once upon a time was the face of a human soul. But now it’s a mask, the real mask, masking nothing again but emptiness. The mask becomes the life, the life becomes the mask, masking everything, but unable to mask our emptiness.
So when you finally succeed in unmasking one, it would do you good to bear in mind that the face you discover underneath is again nothing but another mask. And you keep unmasking them, one mask after another, one lost dream after another, one tomb after another.. and all you see are masks, masking masks, round and round the mulberry bush. And when you finally begin to ponder and wonder: But where then is the human, the wearer of all these masks? Where are we? What are the masks hiding, then, if all we encounter are masks?…
Then, dear friend, you must understand that the ugliest of all these masks is now the human being himself, and what we are hiding is the fact that we have lost our true face forever.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
If there be a she
Where is she?
If there was a she
Where was she?
If there be a he
Which is he?
If there was a he
When was he?
If there be a we
What are we?
If there was a we
Wherefore were we?
If there be an I
Why am I?
If there is goodness in the human race
If there is love in the human heart
If there is hope in the human being
Why are we still not there
Where we once were
When we had goodness and love and hope
In our hearts
On our tongues
And as the work of our hands…?
If I have a friend
Please help me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I am another blackbird
I want to fly high up in the sky
Shy and bold
Freed and loved
Here and there and
Everywhere.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Whatever you do
Do it with love
Or you will die without love…
Whatever you do
Do it with love
Or you will be buried without love
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
And after pain comes joy
If you let the pain have its way
And yet you conquered it
And after pain comes love
If the pain washes you truly clean
And yet you conquered it
And after pain comes life
If you walked hand in hand with pain
And conquered it
Your pain is not stronger than you
You are stronger than it
That is why it tries so hard to hurt you
A little
Because it will not last long
Wait a little longer, baby
Just a little –
Pain is our bridge.
Do you see the morningland
Waving in the distance?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I wish I were a painter, to draw the pictures and paint the concepts that words cannot hold – my words. I believe there are greater poets now and ever, better writers, greater wordists, because I’ve tried and tried but still I’ve not succeeded in telling you what I know. I cannot form it in words, I cannot form it in thoughts, I just know it and understand that it is the world of things which the words have never said.
You cannot tell a woman that you love her. The moment you say it, it is gone. You can tell a man the truth, but you cannot tell him what the truth is – only he must find it out for himself one day. You cannot describe beauty in words. Even the beauty of a beautiful poem cannot be put into poetry again. You did it without thinking – and the moment you started thinking, you did not see it again.
Think a little – little thoughts…
A picture is still worth a thousand and one words. A woman wounded me mortally, yet try as I did, I could not explain in words what she did, and yet I know it Clearly.
You can never change anybody but yourself, because you are the one person to whom you can speak without words, always. And once there is truth, then there is nothing more to say. You can only say the truth, my brother, but you cannot make anybody understand. But, take heart… silence teaches the last lesson finally finally finally finally.
All the things that the words do not say, silence says always.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The moment she stopped being a chimera and became a human woman, memory and experience kicked in – my fascination waned, my hot blood cooled, my wild pursuit slowed down, and I hesitated… – Do I really want a real woman? Where is my chimera? Give me back my chimera. I want a strange thing that haunts my imagination and promises the unknown and knocks me out of my senses and makes me feel strange things. She looked at me and shook her head and said: Be careful what you wish for; learn to be grateful for the simple things you get.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 