The heart needs a long time To understand that someone is gone. Decades after the death bells chime, The heart still waits for the loved one To come back home. The heart needs a long time Because hearts are built for eternity. Loving is more violent than crime, You’ll be sentenced to immortality As you wander and roam Trying to come back home. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
loss
REPEAT
It’s like 10,000 years away It’s like you went away On that fateful day It repeats itself everyday. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
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
LAW OF THE L
Take your L Take it well No one can tell Why you fell Did your pride swell? It rings a bell It broke your shell Take it well I wish you well Time will tell And heal you well Heaven and Hell Understanding your L Will break the spell And make you well. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
*L stands for Loss.
ALL AND NOTHING
You cannot have it all
Appreciate what you have and give gratitude
The fruits that want to fall
The fruits that have to fall
The fruits that will fall
Let them fall
You cannot have it all
Where you have nothing appreciate your solitude
For you can never have it all.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
BADLY
I‘m hurting so badly It’s driving me mad And making me sad I’ll take the bend gladly. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
LET IT BE LOVE
When a flower is touched by the rays of the morning sun, it opens up, touched by love; and one says that the opening was done in love because it was opened in the daytime, by the light.
But when a flower opens up in the night, it too might have been opened up by the light, the soft moonlight or the warm embrace of a gentle night wherein lives quietly love too. For some flowers love the day and some flowers bloom at night.
But a brutal Hand, a treacherous laugh, a cruel hungry storm, will not wait for day or night; it will prise open its stolen prize, and pride will pay a heavy Price, for it will be broken. So, let it be love, dear. Because nature wants to take her course, not give her curse.
At the right time
In the right way
In all simplicity and naturalness
Gentleness and in trust
My dear Child, let it be Love.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
REFLECTIONS ON TRANSITION
The earth is the mother
And the physical body the womb
In which the soul incubates and grows
Before birth into the beyond.
Each time we on earth are born
We have but been sunk
As a seed into a surrogate mother’s womb
To grow there a little strong.
Death is but the midwife
Dying the throes of labour and pain
Someone misses you each time you are born
Something receives you back at death again.
And all the things you did on earth
Shall be as a dream in the womb
So heed your spirit even while in the flesh
For it alone remembers its home.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
LOST PLANES
Like the lost letter
I sent to you – the postman never said
It never arrived
And I’m still waiting
For your unsuspecting reply
And yet it is you who are waiting
For me on the other side.
How can coplanar souls lose sight of each other?
Their calls echo leeward and die unheard.
How can planes fly into the wind and disappear
And leave gaping wounds behind
Lost at sea?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WHEN THE MOON IS GONE…
Like a soulful cry
On its own
Gradually spreading itself out
Through the vastness
Of the heavenly skies
So is the loneliness in my heart
When the moon is gone…
The hour of the full moon is gone
The setting suns
Leave moonless skies behind
Deep into the night
Once again…
Yet we bear it
Because
After the moon is gone
A different charm rules the night…
Until the moon
Another Moon
Another one
Comes again –
But I will never love this way again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 