Love

BEING HUMAN IN A SERIOUS AND HAPPY WAY

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Walk with me
Down quiet paths in the woods
Hold my hand
Tell me about yourself…
I’ll listen and give answers where I can
I’ll listen with my heart, the heart of an honest man…

I don’t want to take advantage of you
Everything that was good in you
When you were a child
I want it to come to the fore again
When you walk by my side…

And if somewhere along the way
We lie down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Being human in a serious and happy way…

I want the child we have together
To be a reflection of the child in you and me
I want our old age, our life’s evening
To be again like childhood, in the beginning…
Look into my eyes as I look into yours
Let’s hide nothing from each other, let’s have nothing to hide…
Let our quiet walk in the woods
Last longer than our life on earth…

And if somewhere along the way
We are laid down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Going up our path again together
Being human in a serious and happy way.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DEATH OF A FLOWER

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

You are afraid of a flower
She smiled sadly at me
My bosom blossoms for you

My thorns, they prick, I know
But love hurts the lover
And love hurts the loved

And I’m dying, I’m dying for you
Lie down in my grave with me
Let’s be reborn together.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FISHERMAN

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Daily my heart weeps
My soul is drenched in a river
Flowing with thoughts of you

Of late I have become
A fisherman
Richly rewarded for my toil

Bravely diving into the lake of love
Daily my heart weeps
With joy.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

ALL OR NOTHING

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

The entire I gave
While smallness was all
She ever wanted.
But the rest of me thirsts too.

When frivolity was laughing
At its own shadow
I warned
That my heart was dripping…

When superficiality was doing the maths
Around its own tunnel vision
I insisted
My heart is dripping out…

When cunning was blind to the metaphor
Of its own despair
I fell silent
And listened to the sound of bleeding feet

Walking away.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GOODBYE, LAUGHTER

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever listened to
The night talking to itself
While you lay there beside one another
And not a word occurred to you?

You see the end approaching
Like a boat coming to the shore
To take you away
Away from a laughter called love

And as your worlds drift apart
In the space of one short night
Strange, but no words occur to you
To adequately say goodbye.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

URGE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

I don’t know where I’m going with this
I am a footprint in the dark night
That keeps repeating itself
Endlessly, yet it’s going somewhere

It is a mystery to me why I ask
You to trust me, although I know
Neither the way nor the goal –
I know only the stubborn Urge in me.

And I know you are a part of this Urge
When it hurts you, it hurts me
I don’t know where I’m going with it
All I know is you’re coming with me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE HEART WILL GROW

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When, blinding,
The sun’s rays, binding,
The sun’s gaze, finding its way
Through a window, minding
Your business for you, a dazzling hello
Like a friend’s caring
Like a friend’s sharing a heart
You shut tight your eyes tight
A moment –

When love won’t wane, won’t dim, won’t fall
When all you get is love, love, love
You bite back the tears of incomprehension
And open wide your soul –
What your eyes can’t bear, the heart can hold
The heart will grow, the heart will grow!

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

TENDERLY

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

I hold you tenderly
Like a precious thought
I sparingly share
Only with strangers

For they know not its worth
Will not rob me of it or its meaning or
Crush it to death like a writer
Crushes an idea in his mind –

Might be a butterfly
Might be a petal
Might be a story that would have changed minds –
Gone, unwritten, unspoken, unshared.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

A THOUSAND ETERNITIES

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I see the sun rising
The horizon is no longer far
We have met each other halfway
The horizon is now the road.

The smell of your breast
Is a miracle
The touch of your breath
Is a poem

That ceases never to enchant
The undulating sands beneath which
My desert is overpowered
By your thousand flowers…

I am born anew
When you gently wake me up
In the night
Just to look into my eyes…

Heaven.

Heaven be your name
And though memoryless we wander
Far away in this blue grass under
The heavens,

Yet you pull me up where I see you
Calling me, reminding me, admonishing me
With your eyes in the middle
Of the night.

Heaven be our home
A thousand eternities from now
Far Beyond yonder horizon
We see.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EVENING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

A dog is barking higher up
On the mountain
A worried sounding woof
Every few seconds
I wonder if someone is missing again

Down in the valley there is a train
That rushes past. It sounds like
A river every few minutes
Carrying someone’s dreams into
Another person’s thoughts

I’m trying not to pay attention to the
Conversation taking place beside me
The emotions are strong
Father and daughter gently tying
Up the memories of years past

Just like I waited six days
To finish this poem
So they also waited all these years
To finally say, at the departure, I love you
Please forgive me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.