Of Inner States

HERE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

image by Geralt

Where do we find the meadows
Where do we find unsullied fields
Where do we find clear rivers
Safe streets, calm roads?

Where do we find prompt justice
Where do we find the fairest laws
Where do we find true balance
Round wisdom, pure love?

Where do we find harmony
Where do we find melody deep
Where do we find communion
Unity, respect?

The Desert is spreading, spreading and spreading
And eating up our gardens and drying up our fields
The Wanderer is going, going and going
Receiving, containing and learning always.
What is true existence? What is the good life?
Within or without? Or here or there?
There is nothing better than Home…

Home is here with us
We only need to give it a chance
And it will make us as happy as
Ever human beings could be on earth…
Home is ever here with us
In our hearts, at our fingertips…
Let it flow.

Where do we find fulfillment
Where do we find the heavenly
Where do we find perfection
Salvation, rebirth?

We find it right Here
In our hearts, in our homes, in our countrysides and cities,
In our striving, in our suffering, in our experiencing…
We find it in our growing, in our giving, in our maturing…
Nobody is going to do it for us
So we have to keep doing it
Until we get it right at last and forever.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

 

(Image by Geralt)

SONG OF THE THIRST

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image

Nothing can satisfy me –

No book, no woman, nothing on earth
Can still my thirst

I will die
But my thirst will live forever
I will die
But my thirst will live forever…

No vice, no love, nothing
Is enough

Nothing will ever be enough

This thirst will live forever
And thirst in me forever more…

And never satisfy me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNCONSCIOUS

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

image

A leaf…
Trembling in
The wind –

I
Through life move
With half-open eyes
That fail to see the other
Side…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IMAGINATION

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image

They were not decorations on our wall
We were shadows on theirs
Flickering like candle thoughts
Gathering, falling and dispersing
Like broods of clouds
When we stand across the divide
Looking at each other, it’s hard to tell
Who is real
And who is the figment of whose imagination.

Writer, did you write your book
Or did your book write you?
Artist, did you paint that look
In the eye of the portrait watching you
Or are you just a thought in its mind?
If you look, sometimes you will find
That the musician is the instrument
And the song is the conductor of his movement.

And when an architect erects a building
He is only doing so to house therein his restless feelings.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YOUR TREE

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image
The tree you planted in my heart
Has grown strong…
The longer we remain apart
The more to each other we belong…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LARGE GREY CLOUDS

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swallow that pride
step aside
that narrow heart, it is a road
open it wide

lei in that sunshine
look out the window
that thing out there that makes you
feel so good, it is light
and you’ve got it in your eyes

sometimes, locked away
i espy the large grey cloud
i understand that you are proud
is it so hard to let go?
to let those feelings show?

guess it must really be hard or
you would have done it long ago –
i see it in your eyes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOOK DEEPER

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We are so strongly influenced
By the form of what we see
That we lose sight of a sense
Of what its true content could be

Who would ever guess
That in a cocoon sleeps a butterfly
Or that the greatest devil of all
Looks like an angel in the sky?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RIDE OUT

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The way is “how”
Even more than “what”
Even more than “where”

“What” without “how”
Is religion, is dogma
Will chain the spirit

“Where” instead of “how”
Will never lead to
The answer of “why”

For it is the doing
By oneself that yields alone
The personal Understanding of “How”

Just do to me that thing
That makes my spirit light
And, deep in me, I’ll understand
The way

Who needs teachers
When we’ve got horses?
Just teach me how to ride
Or I’ll learn it myself

Then we’ll ride out together
And see for ourselves
What the world has to offer to
Seekers and lovers.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNQUIET STORM

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Often, upon many an unquiet storm
Seeking calm exits through rough unfriendly seas
I have longed for death, and then
Quickly corrected myself, for even then,
Deep within, I sensed
That death would be no end.

And I have given kindness, even though
I knew that kindness would be a signal
To those who sail the dark waters
To come in and take advantage of me.
And I have kept many a dark secret silently inside
Just to protect some people, that they be not exposed.

And I have kept my peace
So that others may have their piece
And when they did not turn around
To say thank you, I have continued
To be that way still
For I know no other way to be.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE DREAMER

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Sometimes it seems
As though the valley were the
Mountain-peak,
The mountain-peak the valley

Sometimes it seems
That to arrive at the valley
I must first arrive at the mountain-peak
And, sometimes, to arrive
At the mountain-peak, I must
Arrive at the valley

Which is the valley
Which the mountain and
Which the peak? –

Sometimes, Baby, it seems
As though to find you I must leave you…
And sometimes it seems as though
When I want to leave you
I’ll only end up again by your side

Sometimes, when I am Dreaming
I think I am awake –
But I have never once thought myself a dreamer,
Not even while I dreamt.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.