Time doesn’t change things, they stay as they are. Events change things. Experiences change things. Things change things. Not time. Time only changes the outer appearance of the form of things.
Sometimes a thing that seems like it will last forever only lasts a short time and then changes, because the thing or event that will change it met it early.
While sometimes an other thing that seems flimsy and ephemeral stays unchanged for eternities, because the thing or experience that will change it has not yet met it.
Pain they say is your friend
But it is also your enemy.
Be careful when it starts to bend,
It can break you completely.
Take small breaks from your pain
Every once in a little while.
Laugh at yourself or with a friend -
If you can’t laugh, smile.
Tell pain enough is enough
When you’ve learned your lesson.
After washing, turn the shower off
And you can now start dressing
Up, stepping out and showing up,
Changing your narrative.
Not pain but joy is the overflowing cup
That we drink to eternally live.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
There are pains I could bear
When I was younger
Which I cannot bear
Any longer
When I was younger, I was tougher
My heart could recover
Now I’m older, I’m harder
No longer a bender, now a breaker
No longer a healer, now a hurter
So I don’t engage
Unnecessarily, I don’t bother
I just turn a new page.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
When I first came to Germany,
I died, slowly and gradually.
And - this is the worst part -
I died alone, inside my heart.
Some might say it is a death
Akin to the planted seed
That dissolves inside the earth
En route to being freed;
Freed from the past and the old -
The path to growth into the new.
But death is empty, dark, cold.
And lonely. I never knew.
There is a path that leads back to life;
Beware - it is more painful than death
And it too with loneliness is rife
From which will emerge your second breath.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
I dreamt that something did not arrive
But think now as I may I cannot remember
What it was in the night that didn’t arrive
As though the memory I don’t remember
Is itself what it was that did not arrive.
Morning comes and I am alive
Full of tomorrow’s energy and drive
So I wonder what it was I forgot today
I guess it must be yesterday.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
Sometimes you can‘t really tell
When or why you lost interest in a person
When exactly the bondage fell
And you finally understood life’s lesson
Being mediated to you through them
A fallen leaf is a priceless gem
It mothers and yields a new rising stem.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
When the person you knew
disappears and is no more
than memories and pictures
and daily through the door
a stranger now in and out walks
while in the old voice of before
this stranger also with you talks
welcome to disorientation shore.
People really change,
it is no myth -
Experience totally today
the person you’re now with -
No human truly stays
a monolith.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
Perfection is for the cowardly
Perfection is for the vain
Perfection is for the insecure
Afraid of the rugged terrain
Perfection is for the talentless
Unable to handle the unknown
Perfection is for the clueless
For the lazy follower, the drone
Give me imperfection at dawn
The origin of the day and the way
Give me imperfection at dusk
The source of tomorrow’s dream.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
When I was young and I still had a choice
I woke one day and heard a woman’s voice (and she said)
My son don’t walk away from the path
Courageously face all that it hath (because it’s)
Easy to walk away from the right path (but then)
It’s never easy finding your way back
Don’t walk away, son…….
Years passed and I became a man
I did away with all my childish plans
I saw the world the way it really was
But I was too weak to fight off its paws
And the woman’s words went flat (in my mind)
And I shut my eyes and walked away from the path
I walked away, Lord…..
Now I am… – –
I am… – –
So… – –
So… ….. hee ha!
Now since that time I’ve been living along the ways of men
In all that time I haven’t made one single friend
I’ve lost the peace of mind that I used to know
I’ve gained the world but what happened to my little soul (little soul….)
(instr.)
My son don’t walk away from the path
Courageously face all that it hath (because it’s)
Easy to walk away from the right track (but then)
It’s never easy way finding your way back
It’s easy to lose the track
It’s never easy finding your way back (I say)
It’s never easy finding your way back (ohh)
It’s never easy finding…
It’s never easy finding hey….
Your…… way back…
And I’m so… lonely.
