How can someone Love someone so much? Is it possible? Once upon A time there was such. And betrayal couldn’t make the love go away, It only opened a wound that would forever stay And questions yearning to find answers some day. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Of Dark Feelings
WHAT’S HIDDEN IN THE SOIL
How something so good Can just suddenly spoil You would be so surprised What’s hidden in the soil. How success and fulfilment Can defy time and toil You would be so mortified What’s hidden in the soil. How the hand that loved Can suddenly recoil You would be so horrified What’s hidden in the soil. The human heart is a garden, A kitchen, a fertile soil And strange things happen When things come to the boil. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
FAKE
ASSUMPTION IS THE FILTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Realising you’ve been deceived Is very hard to believe Because it looked so real How it made you feel But that is the first rule of deception It must never look like deception When you look at a wolf clothed as a sheep You don’t see a wolf clothed as a sheep You see a sheep. Everything around you Could be a cover created to confound you. Our wishes, insecurities, vanities, memories, Propensities - they all block our senses. Assumption is the filter of consciousness. Worse, presumption. Everything is a dress, And who or what is wearing each dress You will learn by experience as you progress. But as you become more knowledgeable You ironically also become more gullible. You are stunned, as you learn and grow, To realise there’s still so much you don’t know. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
SMILE
Did you know that Smiling makes you happy When you’re feeling crappy? Did you know that? I bet you’re smiling now. And if you were feeling crappy, Now you’re feeling a little happy - I bet you’re smiling now. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
THE DAY THE LAUGHTER CAME AGAIN
The day the laughter came again I stood in shock and stared at it in awe Like a stranger from a distant terrain For I had forgotten to a tragic flaw How laughter sounds and makes you feel. It felt so good it made me want to cry; The power of laughter and joy is real - A heart that laughs purely will never die. The day the laughter came again I was at the lowest ebb of my life, My soul wracked every day by pain, Torn by questions and unresolved strife, I woke up that morning and prayed to God, then set out to bravely meet the day And as I, work-focused, did onward plod, Laughter came to me again along my way. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
UNTIL IT HAPPENS
You think it matters Until it happens And then you realise It doesn’t really matter You think it kills Until it happens And then you realise It only hurts for a while And then it disappears. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
PRE-DAWN
The light is gone from my heart And gone from my life And cut out my most sensitive part With a dark burning knife But I don’t care, because underneath The heavy mountain of pain A greater flame bursts from its sheath And lights up my heart again. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
WOMAN’S HEART
Women are usually emotionally far ahead of men. For brief moments, the men might overtake, but in the overall story, usually a woman’s heart knows more than a man’s heart, knows it earlier than the man’s heart, remembers more than the man’s heart does, and retains the memory for much much longer than a man’s heart ever could.
Without woman’s heart we would lose our memory of home and our understanding of homeliness. When a woman goes, the home goes. And when a woman comes, Home comes back. The heart of woman alone can dig a tunnel to hell or span Heimdall’s bridge to Heaven. And she does it quietly, right there beside you, where the half of them poison you and kill your spirit’s joy, and the other half of them heal you and make you deeply happy. With just a few words, and sometimes even without saying a word.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
SUDDEN JOLTS
I cry spontaneous tears
They come unbidden
Rolling back adult years
All of a sudden
The wounds, the tears
A shuddering bolt
And a painful spasm
Of old fears and new cares
That repeatedly scars
Anew my heart with a volt
Of shivering behind cold
Iron intangible bars
A body-wracking jolt
And then the next moment
I quietly laugh again
Grateful and content
To reap my fruits in pain
I don’t know when
The tears will come again
At 2 o’clock or at 10
In a meeting, at a game, or on a plane
Or taking a walk in the friend zone
Or sitting at home all alone.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 