ALL THE THINGS THAT THE WORDS DO NOT SAY

I wish I were a painter, to draw the pictures and paint the concepts that words cannot hold – my words. I believe there are greater poets now and ever, better writers, greater wordists, because I’ve tried and tried but still I’ve not succeeded in telling you what I know. I cannot form it in words, I cannot form it in thoughts, I just know it and understand that it is the world of things which the words have never said.

You cannot tell a woman that you love her. The moment you say it, it is gone. You can tell a man the truth, but you cannot tell him what the truth is – only he must find it out for himself one day. You cannot describe beauty in words. Even the beauty of a beautiful poem cannot be put into poetry again. You did it without thinking – and the moment you started thinking, you did not see it again.

Think a little – little thoughts…

A picture is still worth a thousand and one words. A woman wounded me mortally, yet try as I did, I could not explain in words what she did, and yet I know it Clearly.

You can never change anybody but yourself, because you are the one person to whom you can speak without words, always. And once there is truth, then there is nothing more to say. You can only say the truth, my brother, but you cannot make anybody understand. But, take heart… silence teaches the last lesson finally finally finally finally.

All the things that the words do not say, silence says always.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE WANDERING GROUP

When you feel the thing
Most sought
The thing most loved
The thing most needed
The thing most sensed, most uncomprehended
The thing most yours
Approaching you…

Do not walk faster
Do not let over-excitement hurry you
Do not abandon your rhythmic pace
As you reach out to grab it
But just keep on moving
Steadily back Home.

We wander, we wander, we wander…
Everywhere we wander –
Never hurrying
Never worrying
Never tarrying
Ever merrying.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE PERSON WITHIN

I saw a big spirit
Carrying a small body
Upright and light and taller
Than the giants that dwarfed her

I saw a strong spirit
Carrying a crippled body
Gracefully, effortlessly, healing
The minds that came his way.

Like the seasons that change
So every Body will go
But our natures will stay
And spirit, spirit will find a way

To break through the shell
And say Hello.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WARM

There is something about Christmas
Even in places where it is cold, it is warm
Those without electricity bring light to each other
Drought and famine cannot destroy the bread of life
War will not make us forget that we are one human family
And the rich will not be happier than the poor –
There is a light that brought warmth upon this earth
If the cold of loneliness grips your heart this year
May Christmas touch you and make you warm.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

I wrote this poem as part of an interview published in Sabine’s Lifestyle-Kolumne. The body of the interview is however in german, but it can be read here.
*Aka Teraka was my pseudonym.

SPIRIT SLEEP

image

A smile is made up of many wounds
A road is the sum of innumerable restless feet
Love is the pain that pleasures
And victory is defiance in the heart of defeat
But what is spirit?

Spirit is
The stranger that walks the earth
For whom death is birth
Sleepwalker swaying at deep’s edge
Unfulfilled, the promise, unremembered, the pledge.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE SONG OF HEARTS

image by Unsplash

A woman there was
Who by music was made –
Music conceived her
And made her
And set her free

And lost she wandered
Uncomprehended and lonely and
Confused for many a day
Until upon a morning, dawn tore
Out of her heart a haunting melody
And she learned that she could sing

Then did she, joyous of heart, compose
And sing and release to the world
Like a bird-being set free
The very song that fashioned her
And daughter became mother
Nay, traveller became bridge

I am a song
You are a song
We are all heaven’s song.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE MIDNIGHT CANDLE

image

Spirit flame in the world of it-doesn’t-matter
Radiant star never-the-less in the darkness
Night is a blessing for lost dreamers
It is the world-wanderer’s permanent address

Night makes the seeing blind
And the insight sharp as blade
The fire within will warm the cold
Feet of dew

Young mind, never mind
The world well and shiny made
It is for the old
You were born to bring the new.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HATRED HAS MANY BELIEVERS

Watch that hatred bang
Its head on the wall
Watch it struggle against a bridge
Over a gorge, dig a hole and fall
Hear it, baffled, ponder into the night.
The middle is thinning out into left and right
I know you don’t believe in the light
Because it’s hard to believe in something
You don’t understand –
It’s safer to hate in numbers
For the logic of hatred is easy to comprehend
Only a few will be left standing
After love has conquered the land.
Tread soft, haters, you’re walking on quicksand.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ANTI-GRAVITY

There is a lightness of words
That, when it leans on you
Your heaviest resistance disintegrates
And you learn a new
Meaning of the word Gravity.

For the lighter wrestles the heavier
To the ground
The whisper beats the shout
To the sound
The rigid mind of intellect
Remains earth-bound
While the childlike heart of intuition
Freedom has found.

Like a flame dancing on water
Spirit is light as dove
And heavy as conscience.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BITTER BREAD

When they seek bread
You hesitate to speak
Of the bread of life

For they look you in the eye
And say
Can’t you see that I’m hungry?

How can you make
The spirit strong
When the body is still so weak?

And so you fall silent
And wait with the rest,
For the rest, in peace…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.