Sometimes a part of you Can live outside of you And run away from you And refuse to come back to you And will ignore you And will not recognise you And will reject you And will hurt you And will avoid you Because the reason why It is living outside of you Is in order to find itself And fully become itself Through struggle, experiencing and reflection Uninfluenced by you In order to one day be able To complement you And be complemented by you. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Of human beings
PEOPLE NEVER COME BACK
People never come back They move on to the new you Or to their new perception of you With or without you And you move on to the new them Or to your new perception of them With or without them But the old will never come back. Tomorrow will come. Those who try to cling on to the past Lose their way and orientation very fast Because Time never goes back. Those who meet again do so in the future As different people with a different Nature Because only going forward takes you back Home. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
ONE LOVE
You can only love one person, you can never love two people or even more. True love. In order to love another person, you have to first change and become a different person. But the person who loved that first person can never ever love another person. Once your heart has bonded, it can never ever unbond again, until it dies and becomes born again as a new heart.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
YOUR SELF-WORTH: AN ETERNAL AND PERPETUAL SUNRISE WITHIN YOU
Your self-worth does not depend on another person’s acceptance of you or love for you. It is your own personal fundamental imprint upon Creation, your contribution to the flowering of the universe, your service to God. It is the authenticity with which you do everything you do; it is the truthfulness you manifest in all your dealings; it is the joy you bear within you inspite of all the reversals and disappointments you may experience; it is your loyalty to goodness above all things; it is your claiming of your right to dare and to fail without being mocked; and it is your claiming of your right to succeed.
It is your humility when you boldly lead and your dignity when you faithfully follow; it is your free will; it is your ability to love yourself and to love others; it is your honesty to yourself when you have erred; it is self-correction and self-motivation; it is your sense of principles; it is the love you give back to those who love you; but it is also your freedom from the chains of those who love you; and yet it is also your duty of truthfulness and dignity to those with whom you share a bond of trust; it is your obligation to your promises and the way you stand up to them; it is the firmness with which you resist evil; it is the severity with which you tell yourself the truth after you have yielded to wrongness.
It is your sense of humanness, your consciousness of being someone; it is your fighting spirit, your refusal to die spiritually or emotionally; it is the eternal and perpetual Sunrise which you carry within you; it does not require another person to be sad in order for you to be happy; it does not require others to be a nobody in order for you to be a somebody; it is your sensing and seeking and going of your own path, without unjustly intruding on others’ paths and free will; it is all this and more. But it definitely does not depend on the love or acceptance you receive from anybody else. It stands by itself, an integral part of you. It is You.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
IT’S A HUMAN HEART
It’s winter You’ll have warmer days And you’ll have colder days But they’ll all be cold. It’s a human heart You’ll have clearer days And you’ll have uncertain moments But still, be bold. It’s an Earth life You came to cry And you came to laugh And maybe grow old. The people you love the most Will cause you the most pain And yet they’re the only ones Your heart will want to hold. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
THROUGH HONESTY
Don’t be ashamed Pour it all out The heart is tamed and freed from doubt by the bravery of honesty. Let those that hurt you continue to mock you It still cannot stop you from healing through honesty and growing through adversity. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
PARTS OF STORIES
The person you think is in your story is also in someone else’s story. Never think a person is exclusively yours, even if they tell you so. It only depends on the form and context, on the depth and scope, and on the intensity and exact nature, of their role in your story and their roles in other people’s stories as well. Just like you are in many people’s stories, so is even the person closest to you maybe even closer still to someone else in that other person’s story. People are interconnected in ways nobody can fathom.
And you can only see your story, but lack complete access into the world of the other person’s story. You only know the character a person plays in your story, but you would be surprised if you ever saw the character that same person plays in another person’s story. Never will you know all the parts of a story, only some – if you are lucky, maybe the relevant ones. Never will you know all the people in a person’s story. And never ever will you know all the stories in which a person features – not even the person closest and dearest to you. Just like only God knows all the stories that you too are a part of.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
MAY YOU
May you grow Like the flowers you love so much May you sow Seeds of fruits that nourish as such May you glow Under the purity of a true lover’s touch May you know Honesty to which you can safely clutch. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
WOUNDED TERRAIN
I‘m riding on the train And riding through my pain When I’m done if I’m still sane I won’t come this way again. The experience is a strain On my heart and on my brain Riding through wounded terrain Where my trust was slain. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
WITHOUT A TRACE
There was once a person I once knew her for a short while I don’t know what happened to her Or who she became or what lifestyle I have no idea where she is now I never discovered where she went to Or who she mixed herself up with, if any If she still exists, what she’s going through But she made my heart childlike Before she suddenly disappeared Without a trace - I pray to God, Who knows it all, To always be with her wherever she is And give her protection, progress and peace And guide her to a beautiful place Full of flowers, true love, honesty and bliss. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
