words

PROMISES WITHOUT WORDS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Some promises are made without words. But they are there. They are transmitted from heart to heart, and the heart understands what has been given, received, taken, reciprocated and shared.
Such promises are easy to break and deny, but hard to bear or forget or ever make good again. Because what was not spoken with words or broken with words cannot be repaired with words.

The deepest promises are silent and are the litmus test of the truthfulness of our character and the trustworthiness of our personalities and the purity of our hearts.
And then when the words then follow, they seal in stone what has already permeated the air and the heart.
Be mindful of the promises you make, whether spoken or unspoken, be honest to yourself and fulfil – or break honestly – what you have promised within yourself.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

WHAT WORDS CAN DO

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
I’ve learnt the hard way
What words can do
When I write or say
Them to you.

When I think you will read between the lines
You read the lines,
And when I think you will read the lines
You read between the lines.

Sometimes I think you will understand
That I don’t really mean what I’m saying,
But the words enter you and start to expand
And exact a price I will long be paying.

Because words carry life
And words carry meaning,
A word that cuts and kills like a knife
May not be corrected by a word of healing.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WORDS WORTH LITTLE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
What are words worth
On this lonely earth?
Actions seem more honest
But they also lie the best.
You don’t know what to believe -
Even silence too can deceive.
Only what you intuitively perceive
Will in the end be your reprieve.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PEOPLE SAY ALL SORTS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
When people insist
I love you more
Put them to the test
They won’t love you anymore

When people claim
I don’t love you anymore
Treat them the same
They’ll love you once more

Don’t base everything
On just what people say
People will say anything
Just to get through another day

Everybody wants happiness
But not everyone really knows
How to get that happiness -
We’re all searching and it shows.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE THINGS YOU SAID

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
You cannot grow back a flower that’s dead
You cannot stick back leaves already shed
My mind has heard, my heart has bled
You cannot take back the things you said.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TIRED OF WORDS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

A moment of poems passes away
And the nostalgia doth arise
Always the same and always, I pray
That it again’ll tomorrow materialise
Cross my path, call of heaven
Breath of heaven, touch of heaven
Cross my path again, from heaven
Whisper someone, touch me, whisper, free me
Break me loose from the cycle of words
I want the Other Poem.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

JOKER

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Jokes are the barrier
People let down between themselves
A spoken word can wash away years of building
Leave in its wake a ruptured earth
Worse than as if life never happened.

Watch that joke, it’s no joke
The damage will outlive the laughter
Long long after
The careless word you spoke.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WRITING IS THE HAPPINESS OF SORROW

~ Che ~ 8 Comments

Writing is the happiness
Of sorrow

The immortal spirit
Of mortality

The voice that needs
No mouth

The painting whose canvas is
The reader’s mind.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

———-

In 2013 I gave myself the luxury of publishing two books of poems on my birthday – today 6th April.
One is titled “WRITING IS THE HAPPINESS OF SORROW“, the idea for which came with the poem above which I wrote some time ago.
The other is “THE BEAUTIFUL ONES HAVE BEEN BORN” which is specific to my continent Africa.
In 2015 I reprinted them.

THOSE THOUGHTS DON’T DISAPPEAR

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Those thoughts don’t disappear
They keep living somewhere
In you… in me… in someone far away
From here…

Those thoughts don’t disappear
They keep working somewhere
In your world… in my world… or in a far away world
You don’t see and you don’t hear…

Oh, those quiet thoughts
That you’re thinking
Somebody’s picking
Round and round it goes, nothing’s new
And nothing’s hidden and nothing’s lost
Reap the sower must

Those thoughts, they don’t just disappear
They keep on growing somewhere
And one day… when you least expect it…
Oh oh oh, they’re back again in your life
Oh oh oh, they’re back again with their maker.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HAS THE ERA OF ACTIVISTS BEEN REPLACED BY THE ERA OF ARTISTES?

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

It’s cool to be cool. That’s all. Just be cool, suave, classy, be a star at being a star. Having nothing to give, but looking good at it. Having nothing to live for, to die for, to sacrifice for the sake of others, but looking damn good while doing this nothing and you’ll grab the headlines. It’s just cool to be cool.

Everybody knows all the issues – and they’re tired of them all. It’s you they want, because you’re so cool.

Artistes are the new Activists. Fashionistas are the new freedom-fighters. Stars are our new Saviours. Satan is probably the name of some new perfume I’m sure my girlfriend will like. I better buy it, ‘cos it’s so cool to be cool. You can never go wrong being cool.

What are you singing? Why all these lyrics on hunger, on poverty, on war, on injustice and inequality, on materialism? Who on earth do you think still has time for that? Just touch my dark side in a cool way, I’m good that way. Artistes have taken over the world. Bow down, Activist, your day is done!

What on earth are you fighting for? No-one really cares any more. Words never changed anything anyway. Just be cool and you shall rule. The freedom fighter is the biggest fool. Who says we’re not free? They should fight for the freedom of their own coolness. Then they’ll be really free of pressures, free of constraints, free of unnecessary problems. Because cool is the true upper class.

Where are those intuitions of yore? Those convictions of years before before? Where are those humans for whom being human is the sole goal? We have forgotten ourselves and become agents of our masks, the cool artistes. Who do you think you’re lying to?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.