River

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~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I think I definitely lost something
A better me
I hold a promise locked somewhere in my soul
But I’ve forgotten what it is
I know not how to unlock it
It is gone
Gone home.

Imagine
You are walking and
Walking and walking and walking
And
Walking and walking
And suddenly you make out something
In the distance –
But it is silent all around you
No life, no flowers, no birds
Only a dusty sun…

When you get to the object
You find that it is a tombstone
A silent grave undustied
In the middle of the desert
And your name is written on it
There
Waiting for you
In the middle of nowhere –
What do you do?
Thirsty soul
Hungry for love
Dying for the water of life
You stand for a long time
And stare down at your
Resting place.

But when you looked up
You saw
Gleaming above a distant hill
The green back of a yellow sun
Not dusty
Not lost…
What do you do?
Lay down in your grave
And die?
Or leave your name behind
And continue to walk
You talk to yourself
I hear you I hear you
Talking to yourself
Like a mad woman…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

THE CHAMBER WITHIN

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

The head can forget what it vowed to remember
But the heart remembers even that
Which it vowed to forever forget.

A memory which you want to keep forever
Store in the intuitive base of your heart
The head is curious but sometimes too clever –
Less meddlesome is the heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE BOOK OF LIFE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

You’ve judged too soon
Go, take a second look
Sometimes you’ve got to give a little room for error
’Cause you can’t always be too sure –
Don’t spare yourself a second look
Read it again – life’s just a book.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

CHERISHED ALWAYS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I know you’re waiting for me to come
You know I’m waiting for you to become –
How long?

An upturned Calabash hides something
A broken mirror is still a mirror
A song unsung – is it a song?
A loveless soul – is it a soul?
When lovers part, are they still lovers?
Have they learnt how to love
Or forgotten how to love a little?
Upsidedownworld.
Turn it upsideupanddownsidedown
But leave the middle in the middle.

The world grows quiet quietly
A lone car passes now and then
A dog barks gently, night falls lightly
And the studio condenses around me again.

Who was I thinking of just now?
Where was I before evening called me back?
A heart is a thousand stories
And forgotten memories.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LAUGH, WHILE IT’S PLAYING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When it’s raining
Even if it’s raining pain
Put a bucket out and drink up
It might never rain again –

When it rained
Some weeks ago
A glorious thunder, a waterfall from heaven
I envied the child I once was
Who ran naked in the rain…

Come run with me, my heart called to me
In the rain I stood, adult but child again
And raised my hands, even though memory caused me pain
And took again a shower in the rain
Whilst my eyes rained tears unto my thongue
I remembered the land of childhood, where I belong
An unforgotten song.

Drink while it’s raining
Swim while it’s flowing
Cry while it’s hurting

It might never rain again –

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GREEN VEGETABLES

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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.

THE AWAKENING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

How many times will I awaken?
How many sleeps do I sleep?
How many dawns lie still between this dawn
And the final sunrise?
Night has encapsuled night has encapsuled night has
Encapsuled night over and again night has encapsuled
Night over and over and over again…

Out of night
We awaken, and dawn
Is again the night that precedes
Another dawn, another night, another awakening
Lies on the other side of me…
I awaken –
Aye, I awaken…

Mantles of night, descending
Flames of light, ascending –
There is a last boundary where we touch
One more time
And then touch no more…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

RIVER

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Recently, I flowed
I was a river
I forgot yesterday and
Today remembered me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
amazon cover copy river 2015

EVEN IN A DAY’S TIME (Holy Night)

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I have heard that a new star
Is coming…
I hear it every time I return to the
Earth –
Somebody wrote it down a long time
Ago –

And everytime I reincarnate
I am confronted anew with the fact
Of the coming of a new star
A radiant star brighter than the sun
Filled with the power of all the seven heavens…

I have seen this Star.
I saw it once before I was born
I saw it from atop a Mountain before I was unborn
And I have no doubt that one day
It will have come much too close to the earth
For us to be able to do any other thing
Than burn down, burn up or become eternally burning flames
Of spiritual light, paradisiacal fire
Beyond the understanding of a new generation
And a new earth.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

PRAY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

My pain plays with me
My pain stays with me
My pain prays with me
When I pray…

My pain visits me
My pain kisses me
My pain teaches me
How to pray…

I forget you, I forget me
I have to, because without you and without me
I know no pain, even when I pray.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.