It’s not the bite in your pride when the rejection is nearing that you are really fearing It is not the hope that died while heartbreak was jeering that built the guard you’re wearing It is the invasion of your Inside, the vulnerability in sharing, the agony, the pain, of caring Deep within is where you hide, finding strength, slowly preparing, because love is for the daring. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Love
YOU ARE THE ONE I‘M THINKING OF
The light goes on and off like a shivering bulb in a cold room Your heart is not enough to beat back the nocturnal bloom Dawn, the dusk is tough the mother of both glow and gloom Lover, your mouth is rough when you kiss at night you don’t know whom Shadows long call your bluff but your birdsong cries out mushroom I’m you’re d’healer I’ve got the good stuff sweeping you off your feet like your bride broom Yes, you are the one I’m thinking of When the new moon starts to wax and loom. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
VULNERABLE
VULNERABLE
I‘m feeling so vulnerable these days
I feel so exposed on all my ways
Please open up your heart for me, my dear
I wanna hide inside
I‘m feeling so vulnerable this night
I‘m frightened of things not in sight
Please open up your heart for me, my dear
I wanna hide inside
Sometimes a man is weak
He sees all the failures in his life
Pride and shame, pain and uncertainty
Make him feel so small inside
And I’m so vulnerable today
Please hold me in your arms like a baby
And I’m so vulnerable tonight
Hold me until I’m steady
Steady again, … ready again…
Up and ready to be a man…
I’m a boy tonight, I’m a little baby
Just because you don’t see any tears
Don’t be fooled, don’t be fooled
Tonight I’m a slave of all my buried fears
And I’m so vulnerable today
One wrong word from you and I’ll be broken
Yes I’m so vulnerable tonight
Shield me until I’m woken
Up again, … ready again…
Up and ready to be a man…
Hold me baby… hold me tender
Hold me baby… hold me softer
Hold me baby… I’m feeling lonely
Hold me baby… I’m feeling broken
Hold me baby… hold me darling
Hold me baby… hold me gently
Hold me baby… I’m feeling empty
Hold me baby… I’m feeling broken
I’m feeling so vulnerable these days
I feel so exposed on all my ways
And I’m so……
Vulnerable today….
Vulnerable tonight…..
Vulnerable oh yeah…
(Adlibs..)
Instr. riff
Hold me baby… I’m feeling broken… (rptdly)
Words/Music: Che Chidi Chukwumerije
THE FORGOTTEN YOU
How could I forget you?
And forget that I forgot you?
Even this I forgot.
Forgot your face
Forget your eyes
Forgot your ways
Forgot our ties
Forgot the words we spoke in the night
Forgot the cadence of your voice’s delight
Forgot your touch, so deep, so light
I did not even remember you as a dream
You just were never there it would seem
Memory is a fast-flowing vanishing stream.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
SEX IS SECONDARY
Sex is secondary Mission is primary It is not who shares your bed but who shares your path you should wed Or you’ll suffer the aftermath. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
BOYS TO MEN
The older I get,
The more I miss my father.
The more knowing I grow,
The more I miss him.
The more I know him.
The more I understand him.
We live life forwards,
But understand life backwards.
When it‘s too late to change anything,
That’s when we understand everything.
The young shall grow.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
(I just feel like remembering today)
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 