life

AFTER PAIN

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

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.

PARADISE IS HIDDEN BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

Do not go too fast, do not go too slow, nor stop, nor stop to look back, nor look back, nor go back – walk on at a steady pace. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.

Do not love too far, do not love too near, love as you walk, walk as you love, forward calmly, forward calmly, nor be afraid of heartbreak. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.

Do not dream too much, do not dream too little, do not trust too quickly, do not trust too late, do not work too hard, do not work too soft, do not cry during the day, do not laugh in anybody’s face, do not expect that those whom you love also love you, do not expect that those whom you understand also understand you, do not assume that those whom you see not also do not see you, do not assume that those whom you love not also do not love you.

It is in your heart today, it is in your hands today. Forget the past, son, forgive everyone who ever hurt you, nor dream alone of goodness only in the future – Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow.

The person who loves you the most is the last person you would think of. Love me, dear, please love me dear. Paradise is hidden between yesterday and tomorrow. And if we let it slip away today, we will not and never find it again tomorrow, but will walk on lonely again, like yesterday.

If you love me like I know you do, please hold my hand forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image by PublicDomainImages

Our hearts are broken in our youths,
The pain is deep and deeply buried
Beneath our adult ways and fashioned truths;
First love and first death never are forgotten…
First hopes and first dreams, of our young hearts begotten,
Within our innermost souls are ever carried.

Our hearts are shaken in our youths,
Our melodies tempered, our vision stirred…
Amidst all in the world that hurts or soothes
We sometimes slip back again into old times
And see young smiles and remember dead rhymes –
Our backward glance is never completely impaired.

Our hearts are made and formed yesterday,
And today we continue to actualise
The longing that awakened with the early morning ray…
And though yesterday is all done and gone away,
Yet we have it with us always in our hearts everyday
As we boldly heavenwards continue to strive and rise.

Yes, our hearts are awakened in our youths,
And who or what can stop a heart?
It wants to grow; like a stem it shoots
Towards light and life, towards stimulation –
And we shall make it, through trial, tribulation
And whateverelse it be that ever be on our chart!

Forever, forever, the candle is flaming…
And laughing and rising and working, remaining the same.

Our hearts are strengthened in our youths,
If we truly choose to live!
Yesterday, today and forever are booths –
We exit one and enter the next;
And hope and promise shall always be our text,
Yes, Father Above, and our gratitude to THEE we give!

Our hearts are born wild, live wild; until the taming
Gives us depth, dimension and the truth behind our naming.

Yesterday, today and forever…
Alive today, dead never –
We flower forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

 

Image by PublicDomainImages

THE BITE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image

Let your life bite
And bite deep, incisive and tight
Into the lives of others,
Strangers, foes and brothers –

Let it bite
And be felt right
Inside their core
Let them ask for more
When you’re gone
And they’re left alone.

Even though now they complain
For your bite awakens inner pain,
Yet bite deep, bite deep,
When it is time to reap
They will harvest laughter
And laughter after laughter
Because you bit them not with hate,
But in love the seeds of lofty fate
You did dutifully implant –
So let them rant.

Bite, my son, and be bitten,
Smite and be smitten,
Submit to the urge
That bids your river surge
Over all obstacles, my boy,
Breaking all shackles, each like a toy
Life’s battle you must enjoy
It is the repeat of Troy.
And you’ll leave behind upon the earth
By the time death has slain birth
A quiet legacy of truth
And immortal youth.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ROW YOUR BOAT

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

image

Do you see
Those two boats
On the river?
Two brothers
Will row, side by side
Into the sunset.

One will dock
On the golden banks
While the other
Will row on
And they will wave
Goodbye to each other.

This is the way
Of the world
Of love and loss
Of meeting and parting
Of friendship and memory
Of life and death.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Picture:
My brother Kwame and I
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
1995

A few weeks later, he passed on in a car accident.
This was our last picture together.

Kwame & Che
Kwame and Che

 

IMAGINATION

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image

They were not decorations on our wall
We were shadows on theirs
Flickering like candle thoughts
Gathering, falling and dispersing
Like broods of clouds
When we stand across the divide
Looking at each other, it’s hard to tell
Who is real
And who is the figment of whose imagination.

Writer, did you write your book
Or did your book write you?
Artist, did you paint that look
In the eye of the portrait watching you
Or are you just a thought in its mind?
If you look, sometimes you will find
That the musician is the instrument
And the song is the conductor of his movement.

And when an architect erects a building
He is only doing so to house therein his restless feelings.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CHOICES AND LANES, CHANGES, DESTINIES AND LIFE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

image
You make the principal choice only once, and then it drives you along its lanes. When you change, you change solely within these lanes, upwards or downwards, or round and round. You fix the terminal points of your destiny, and that is your life.

But fear not. The principal choice is the answer to who you are, always, and always is forever, and forever holds light for every spirit.

Poets remain poets,
comedians remain comedians,
lovers remain lovers,
leaders remain leaders.

Healers will be healers,
teachers teachers,
builders remain builders,
dancers remain dancers,
and weavers will always weave something.

Mountains remain mountains, be they on land or under the sea.

Women remain women, and children stay children, earthlife after earthlife.

Thoughts ever will strike me, once, and before they strike again, I would have written a poem for them, as a surprise, because I am just like that.

Friends remain friends, men remain men, and what we seek remains all we have.

Choices and lanes, changes, destinies and life.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SENSE OF TASTE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

There is no easy way
To walk through every valley
Without tasting any fruit
Without tasting any fruit

Propensity plays a gentle lute
Curiousity owns a magic flute
Temptation gnaws at your root
Intuition is loud, intuition is mute.

Who can know without taking a bite?
Who can grow without experiencing the night?
Some nights will yield the day
Some nights will kill the day

When does a want become a need?
When does a hunger morph into greed?
Is a sin a fruit or a seed?
A thought is sometimes worse than a deed.

There is a green hill far away
Your feet are confused: to go or to stay?
Who can walk through the valley of the root
Without tasting any fruit?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE RIVER

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

Time could be a river
If I were standing still
Or a dream, if I
Had taken a sleeping pill –

But awake I meander
Through dreams which I fulfil
So I must be the river
And time is standing still.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HIGH PRICE

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Is the price
Of life
Too high?
Experiences that break you
And rob you of the desire
To carry on living.

Is the price
Of knowledge
Too high?
Experiences that teach you things
Which in the end you wish
You never came to know.

If the price
Is this high
Then the prize
Had better be worth it
What ever it may be.

Some say it’s eternal life
Some say it’s finding yourself
But what do they know?
All these wiseacres
Just as lost as you are.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.