life

THE RELIGION OF MUSIC

~ Che

For a long time, decades,
I forgot about the power of music
I stopped believing that music can
Change the world.

It is easy to stop believing it
Because many people also do not really believe it
And so everywhere around you, people agree with you
In a gentle cynical sad way

But there is something greater than belief
It is Knowledge. Memory. New experiencing –
Conviction. Re-cognition. It comes upon you when music
Changes your world and brings you back to life
Inside you again –
This is what Music does to everything.

Then you become a believer again
And a disciple and a missionary of
The Religion of Music.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FACING THE MUSIC EVERYDAY

~ Che

Everything is an opportunity – and even an obligation – to practice the virtues, or attempt the resistance of the vices, and to reflect on the process, results and lessons of this self-struggle.

All the hustle and bustle of the everyday life, the cares, tears, wears, the moments and worries we share, the burdens we bear alone, the moments we fall and the moments we rise, the long phases in which we forget the heavenly contract and just engage in the hamster-run…

Everything has the one supreme purpose of polishing an inner person in us who often slumbers and who will surely consciously experience his or her own funeral one day, invisible to the mourners left behind, whether they believe it today or not.

The earthlife is so jam-packed with pressure, temptation and responsibility, leaving little or no time for the occupation with the growth of the spirit. Thus, this hustle and bustle, the pressure, temptations and responsibilities MUST be actually the very theatre of spiritual development – because life gives us on a daily basis no other.

Running from the world will not save you. You may need periods of detachment once in a while; but then you have to go back into the matrix again, and again, and again. Facing the world and dealing resolutely with the world will alone make you strong.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MATURE MUSIC

~ Che

Sorrow made you Dance
Laughter too
Worry made your heart beat
So did Love
Even Anger, even Hatred, and Fear
Made you move, you danced along
To Surprise, Curiousity, Longing for more
The Loneliness Shuffle, Regret backslides
Even Forgiveness has an ironic Twist to it
Because who really forgets?

Life the musician is not superficial
Live Music not artificial
Life makes Mature Music for
Old and Young maturing Spirits.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

TREE LIFE

~ Che

The trees speak to me
And tell me their Story

Some are planted first
For their growth will be long
And their fruits will come last
To feed the weakening strong
Who have made it to the end

Some flower early
To awaken in the young
The thirst for song, and in
The old the memory of beauty
As a birth gift for the Beyond

Some will be the fruit-bearers
In the middle of time
So that along the journey
Nature will take care of every
Wanderer, every Wonderer, every Seeker

The human life is spread out
Into stages and phases and types of natures
In every one you will find a helper
A teacher and a friend
This is love

Every Tree too has a Helper
Invisible to you and me
But this is love –
God leaves no one to struggle
Without giving him or her – or it – a helper too

For those whose leaves never drop
For those whose leaves drop and grow again
For those who stand straight
For those who bend in the wind
For those who grow unannounced, lonesome and rare
For those who meet me everywhere
I say Thank You.

The trees speak to me
And tell me their Story:
Now that you’ve tasted of the tree
Of the knowledge of good and evil
It is time for you to taste the fruit
Of the tree of life.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

DISHARMONY

~ Che

There came a time in my life when I prayed to die. Not because I had no food to eat, but because I had no gratitude with which to eat the food. Not because I had no bed on which to rest, but because I had no rest to place upon the bed. Not because I had no one to talk to, but because I had no friendliness to offer. Not because I loved death, but because I hated life.

Then I met a journeyman inside my soul, full of humility, laughter and ordinariness. And of the boisterous acceptance of the reality of things.

I am still trying to fathom this journeyman, to understand who he is; to come to grips with the simple realities of everyday life, like everyone else also does, none of whom is less weary of the toil than I am.

To become a man, Nigerians say, is not the job of one day. It requires time. Think I not that only I long for Home – every other Wanderer does so as well. Every.

Mayhaps if we made the Earth a better place, the journey would not be so unbearable afterall. Or what sayest thou?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RUNNING WATERS

~ Che

The story you told in the west is not identical with the laughter you laughed in the north, nor with the song you sang in the south, nor the thoughts you expressed in the east…

The language you spoke on the mountain is very different from the tongue you adopted in the valley, and from the violins you played through the woods, and the ballad you composed upon the blue-green meadows…

The roar you let out as you charged past us has a different content from the groan the desert drew out of you; and the whisper which ye sighed in this grateful heart is not the same cry with which ye flow into the sea.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

NO LAWS CAN SAVE A NATION

~ Che

The simplicity of reality
Drag me down to earth
Some mistakes can be corrected
Only through death and rebirth

But it takes even more strength
To live with your unrectified error
And if you can no longer change your path
Then go it with virtue and valour

The outer Change is not as important
As the inner Transformation
If individuals stay inwardly corrupt
No laws can save a Nation

And when you lose your fear
Of mockery and condescension
You’ll see that most People are simply Followers
For fear of ostracization.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE SPLIT

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

I’m quiet tonight
Never mind that it’s morning
I’m still dreaming

I remember a friend
We had high hopes for his future
Yet he chose the Easy

Now I’m all alone
On the road we once chose together
Watching it grow longer

This pain I keep inside
Greater than death, worse than loss
Treachery’s dungeons.

If I doubted reincarnation
This life has taught me a bitter lesson
For I must come again

The work is unfinished
The cards will be reshuffled
I will come again.

Then I hear, so soft
The sounds of morning dawning
The past is over now.

Those words, those strange words
That baffle the minds of politics
Of culture and science

You can call me Fool
You can call me mad, and yet
You too will come again.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

IT’S A PLANET

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

It’s a planet
Because it’s all about
The plant
Each and every one of them
The way life planned it

So what’s our plan now?
Bring back the plant to planet man
Solution in resolution
A planet in a plan
Universe in verse – reversed.

The planet lungs to breathe again
Plants expiring on planet man
The screen is green
Reality ours to imagine and make
Plant a good seed

Breathe out
Greenscene is backdrop
Every drop will wrench your thirst
Drop back
Because it’s melting

It’s a planet
We did not plan it
And yet we dammed it
But it’s all about the plant
If it’s a good seed, plant it.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

THE HAPPY SADNESS OF MUSICIANS

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

Every Tuesday
They gather here
A flock of wild geese
And play for nobody

Their smiles
Each time their smiles
Break my heart
Open Stage

Not a dime
What’s their crime?
Listen in
To the sound of happiness

It is full of sadness
Life is music
Friends are memory
Death is immortality.

————–
che chidi chukwumerije
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