The joy of the brand new day The happiness that wants to play The laughter in your heart Even when outside the sky is grey Don’t let anything take your joy away Fight for your right to be happy everyday Fight for the light in your heart Happiness is the Paradise of Today Night and day, November or May, Laughter is the currency in which you pay For the gift of life in your heart. My morning thoughts on a happy Sunday. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Of Liberation
VANISHING
Don’t come back after I’ve got used to your absence
Your absence has become your strongest presence
If you return too late you’ll only find yourself gone
Replaced by memory, you’ll be the invisible one.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
BE WHO YOU ARE
It does not matter who your father is,
Or was. It only matters who you are;
Throw off the reputational burden of his
Life, whether a nobody, a crook or a star.
It does not matter who your mother is,
Was, or will be. You have your own destiny.
Be firm in rejecting her spirit’s liabilities,
Nor bask in her glory. Write your own story.
Never ever allow family to be your bondage.
If wealth is not health, detach and go higher.
The chains of name, blood, and heritage
Are human assumptions, not God’s desire.
God wants each unique creature to be true,
So experience and enrich the world as You.
Free your children too from the Obligation to
Follow, serve, help, complete or redeem you.
If your story happens to be your family’s too,
Then so be it, that’s who you genuinely are.
But if your story is totally different and new,
Don’t feel guilty; accept and be who you are.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
SPEAK YOUR MIND
You need to speak your mind Or you will not be free It will eat you up inside and grind Away at your sanity. Say what you really believe Articulate what you really want Your Inner piece shall grant you reprieve When people’s reaction be blunt. Truth is better than art Honesty shines brighter than beauty Your inner voice wants to chart A path to peace of mind and to Liberty. Speak your mind before you die. If your heart moves your mind spiritually Speak your mind unless you’ll die Literally and figuratively. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
YOU MUST BE PATIENT
There will be hope But the heart must cope First with a season Of conflict sans reason This moon is long faced And tied to a dead sea Rolling scrolls misplaced By startled history. You must be patient Time is clairaudient It hears your heart beating And your footfalls repeating The dance to victory. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
YOUR STRENGTH
When they hit The reason why it doesn’t hurt is not because it’s soft but because you’re tough to the core. Laugh the loudest When they hit you the hardest Stand the proudest When you face their mockery test Your strength won’t bring you victory Your strength IS your victory. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
NO HOME AWAY
I walk through the valley of pain on my own
By the time friends come I’m already gone
I am All the colours between black and brown
Call me Africa or call me Diaspora, a birded song
Fly without perching, there’s no home away from home.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
THE THOUGHTS THAT ATTACH
I‘m looking for the pain I can’t find it in all its usual hiding places I go inside, check again the box of fears, the memory full spaces But I can’t find the rain. Letting go of the thoughts that attach Not every perfect catch is a perfect match I cannot find the pain. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
EAGLE AT HEART
Sun-burnished
The sea slit
The morning lit up
Furnished my wit
The varnished mirror beneath me crawls
And over-yonder my sun it calls
Back tarnished memory bit by bit.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
USING SELF-CONFIDENCE
The most powerful thing you can give people is confidence. Self-confidence. But some people, once they have it they turn around and use it against you, who awakened it in them.
Next time, you feel like leaving people wallowing in their pitiful inferiority complex.
But a part of you still goes ahead and keeps on strengthening people who need it everywhere you meet them. What they later do with this strength and self-confidence is their business.
You have done yours.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 