I’M FINE

How are you today?

I’m still hurting from yesterday
I don’t know what to say
I’m very sad even when I play
Lord, heal my broken heart, I pray
I’m lost, I can’t find the way… -

I’m fine, thank you
And you?

Thank you
I’m fine too.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NO HOLDING BACK

Do your poem
Like you do your woman
Like you do your man

Strong and Tender
Deep and Intense
Lovingly dismember
In the present tense

No holding back
Do your poem
Like you do them
That love you back.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHAT DO YOI REALLY WANT?

Imagine if the only way God could save you

Was by letting you continue to search and to suffer –

Would you still continue to beg Him to save you?

Or would you ask the devil to make you an offer?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE THOUGHTS THAT ATTACH

I‘m looking for the pain
I can’t find it in all its usual hiding places
I go inside, check again
the box of fears, the memory full spaces
But I can’t find the rain.

Letting go of the thoughts that attach
Not every perfect catch is a perfect match
I cannot find the pain.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

HAPPINESS IS PARADISE

The end result of life should be happiness. If you live a long and “fulfilled” life, and yet at the end you are full of sadness and uncertainty – what was the point?

I don’t know what or where Paradise is – but if it’s not a synonym for Happiness, what’s the point in making it the destination of your travels?

As simple as it may sound, the aim of life is to be happy – nothing more. The difficult exercise along the way is finding your happiness without unfairly or willfully impeding the happiness of another.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

HAPPINESS, HONESTY AND IMPERFECTION

They said, you’re silent, and when you speak, you don’t speak of the things we know you know, the things you once spoke about. You don’t preach, you don’t teach, you don’t educate, elucidate or inform.

I said I have seen it all and it’s all an illusion. Never follow high-sounding words; they always hide a lie somewhere. All I want is just to be happy.

And I said, keep searching and searching until you find the hypocrite within you; and when you have looked each other in the eye, you will learn to recognize him or her also in the people, the words and the works around you. It’s very easy to be deep and profound. It’s much more difficult to be honestly imperfect.

If you want to be happy, you can’t skip the first step. It is also the last step: honest imperfection. Leave the wise words to the teachers. You, just be happy. That’s the only thing left that I still honestly care about. The rest is just a waste of precious time at best, deception of self and others at worst.

A funny thing happened: this morning I heard a saxophone playing and it gave me more than all the wise moving words in this world ever could or did. It sang the melody of all my sins, all my hopes, all my regrets, all my joys, all the humanity within me; and in the end I knew, it is true: the inner voice is the real you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.