Years pass
And all you do
Is return to the same
Recognition –
All the searching and adventuring
And experiencing and reflecting
Have only taken you
In a circle back to the Recognition
You acquired
The first time you were good…
There’s really only one way of doing it aright
Morally…
And you’ll have to come back to it
One day.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A beautiful green palm-tree
Not the dark green but the bright yellow-green
That gleams in the day-light sheen
Against the azure-blue canvass of heaven, sky and a dream
An awaking dream; am I awake or do I dream?
I could almost be another green palm-tree.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Fluttering somewhere, unseen
Fluttering softly, fluttering quick,
Fluttering, fluttering, an invisible being
Floats over quietly with a candlestick
And a flaming crown around a little wick,
Slightly seen, partly unseen…
They float, candle, being, and candleflame
Over the heads of a thousand men and more…
And alight gently upon a budding dame
Who, touched by an angel, bears a look never seen before
And poets and musicians and men
Draw from her look inspiration again
And again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
It’s such a beautiful morning
The warmth of the day
seems to come partly from me
and partly from the sun –
The light of day makes visible
what already I see
I see through myself too…
A bundle of hopes
A catacomb of dreams
A flaming forest of wishes
A stirring of longings
An understanding
of imperfection as unfailing as
the morning –
Morning time in the house of striving…
Hello to the world
Greetings to my neighbour
Good morning, Stranger
By the time night calls
you will see
that you and me
suffers one destiny.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
I remember watching
When I was a little boy
Hamlet
In my father’s bedroom
By my father’s side
He was munching on Green Vegetables
And I was observing
Sometimes him
And sometimes the television…
And he said:
This is the mystery.
You know… You see…
Why didn’t he do it at that moment?
Or
If he knew that he could not do it
Why did he try to begin at all
To obey his father’s call to action??
He shook his head
And munched away coolly
Upon his Green Vegetables…
And I was trying to figure out
If he was asking me a question
Or giving me an answer…
(for Daddy)
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 