Come into the light Here where Home is bright Let us exchange insight With the same intensity With which we sometimes fight Let Honesty be our Propensity At the very Height Of our Intimacy It will feel right, it will feel so right Without a shred of complacency. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Of Journeying
I WANT TO GROW
I want to grow
I want to know
What’s outside the window
Of my sorrow
I want to go
Where pain cannot follow
Too deep to flow
Too far for tomorrow
The incredible today Show
Thousandfold ecstasy and woe
Changes me into what I need to know
Ahead of tomorrow.
Many more miles to go
The first step is to sow
Hope, sow Joy, sow kindness despite sorrow
Growth is a stream, gently row.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
WORLDS
As I travel the world outwardly, I also travel through myriads of inner worlds inwardly.
Within short periods, I interact with people of different mentalities, characters, backgrounds, histories, personalities and inner worlds; people whose inner lives are often completely different from mine but sometimes also extraordinarily similar to mine.
And I’ve learned one thing. It is not the outer world that is big and vast; it is the inner world that is vaster and more diverse than the universe. But it is also that same inner world that is the smallest, most singular and most undifferentiated space in all of creation.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
CONVERSELY
One person’s content
Is another person’s form,
One person’s excellent
Is another person’s norm,
One person’s present
Is another person’s past,
The message you first sent
Got to the Person you love last.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner River
THE GOD OF THE WILLING
We cannot use God to hide away from the world. Rather we should use God to engage with, decipher and overcome the world. Above all, the world within us. God is not for cowards or weaklings. God is for the brave, the bold, the adventurous, the determined, the open, those who are ready to use the earthlife for that for which it was granted to them: to experience, and to grow through this experiencing.
The form or the content of the experiencing is different for each person. For some it is a quiet thing they need to experience, for others it is a loud thing; for some it is a popular thing they must dare, for others it is an unpopular or even a seemingly inconsequential thing; for some it is a controversial thing, for others it is a safe and boring and therefore annoying and unbearable thing; for some it is personal love, for others it is objective love.
Everybody has those things that will call their heart deeply – and running to God will still not free you from them. There is no escape because it is inside you. God is not there to hide you from yourself or from your challenges. God is there to help you to deal with them. That is why HE granted you this earth life, because HE knows you will need every second of whatever length of time you earned for yourself in this current incarnation.
So, get to work! Go for it. Set off with the business of living by experiencing. God will help you if you are brave and honest.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
TYPES
Sometimes you are just not someone’s type. They might be attracted to you for a while, curious about you, interested in you, be entertained by you. But in the end they will betray you or leave you, because deep within their heart you are actually not their type or what they’re looking for.
And there are two types of them. Those that will tell you honestly up front. And those who won’t.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
WHEN YOU STOP WANTING
When you stop wanting to know everything,
You start knowing what to really want;
When you start wanting to grow into winning,
You start growing, focused, up and to the front.
Never forget the kind of people and things
That rejected you when you were nobody and nothing,
Your knowledge of them shall be the wings
That shall fly you over obstacles into your blessing.
Absorb the pain and become serious,
Trudge through the terrain no matter how tedious,
Be your true self and you’ll be mysterious,
And never return to all that was injurious.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
PARTS OF WAYS
Ways part in part And while parts of ways Stay apart other parts Remain inside the heart Until the harmattan of days Has cleared and the haze Lifts and a new path starts. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
THE TRAIN
The train is full of hopes And full of broken hearts Full of starts and stops A moving story of many parts. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
THE TRAIN WILL DEPART
The Train will depart It will move If you’re on it, you’ll leave the station behind If you’re on the platform, it will leave you behind But when the time comes the train will depart And two people who’ve Until that moment been together will part. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 