ONCE YOU TASTE TRUE LOVE

Once you taste true love
Lust becomes a mechanical chore
Pleasure is no longer enough
You want something more.

You learn to recognise the grain
And separate it from the chaff -
You want to feel that joy again
You want your heart to laugh.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

YOU

No one else but you -
Is this magic? Is this juju?
There is value in virtue
More powerful than voodoo.
No one else but you
I just had to woo you
And once I sort of knew you
I just had to do you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TREASURE IT

When someone loves you
Really loves you
Treasure it above due
It is worth much more than you know

Lack of love is poverty too
Lack of joy and companionship too -
Treasure love above due
It is worth much more than you know.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

EVERYONE CAN BE HAPPY

There is somebody that loves you genuinely; 
May you find that person -
And may you also love that person genuinely.
But if you don’t find or love that person,
Still may you find happiness in life.
Not everyone finds a husband or a wife,
But everyone can be happy genuinely.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A LITTLE HAPPY EVERYDAY

Sometimes you love someone, but the person loves someone else. Or the person simply prefers a lifestyle different from the one which a life with you would have to offer them. So they choose or go after someone else who, or another path that, can offer them that lifestyle.

Being that the aim, the very aim, of life itself is Happiness, this experience of rejection cuts to the very heart of the essence of existence. The hurt can kill the soul. It makes people reappraise themselves, question their worth and even find fault in their own fundamental character. Yet, while self-examination is healthy, so also are self-love, self-understanding and self-acceptance equally necessary.

When trapped in a spiral of self-abnegation in which one no longer recognises oneself, It then becomes imperative to awaken, within one’s consciousness, a new narrative of life and of self in order to find the path to a new source of joy, as a new person. To outgrow the self-image that traps one in a cycle of pain, perhaps even to shed certain traits, and to learn to see oneself, one’s path and one’s Why with fresh new eyes. To find a new understanding of the purpose of life.

This is where the concept of never giving up comes into play. Every morning when you wake up, strive for joy. Be prepared to let go of those thoughts and those beliefs that weigh you down debilitatingly. Be ready and able every day to try a new path, a new thought, until you find the exit – and then you can take flight again.

Life is a jigsaw puzzle. Many parts fit, but many parts don’t fit also. And you have to move the pieces about in your heart and in your life continuously, often, and courageously in order to slowly put your answers together.

And, as you stride on along this way, try… try to be a little happy every day. In the end, that’s all you have. That’s all we have to share with one another. That is our humanity.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

SHARE YOUR LIGHT

Sometimes it‘s just a word that’s missing
At the right time and everything goes wrong
Hurting sounds like hissing
Caring sounds like dissing
Whispering sounds like kissing
And confirms what you knew all along.

But someone will cross your path today
Who needs a smile
Someone crying for help will be in your way
For a little while
Just a word, a look, a smile, a friendly touch
Will help them another mile.

Share your night and your fright
Share your might and your right
Share your sight and your insight
And share your plight and your flight
Share your fight and your bite
Share your height - and share your light.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HURT

Love hurts.
Life hurts.
People hurt.
People hurt people.
And hurt people hurt people.

And when it hurts too much
People begin to avoid the touch
The inner touch
Sometimes they permit the outer touch
But only perfunctorily as such
Because even it hurts too much.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TRUST, BROKEN

Trust, broken.
Thoughts, woken.
Hurt, spoken.
Touch, token.

Unpreparable.
It comes from the one you don’t expect.
Unrepairable.
You’ll never again be able to not suspect.

Healing is an intellectual token
Once the trust has been broken.
Only the spirit can find a new rhyme
In its own way, in its own time.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

For whom shall I write now?
For whom shall I fight now?
Who shall shine the light now
That illuminates my heart?

Lovers don’t turn into friends,
They turn into strangers.
Life the gardener tends
Both safeties and dangers.
But when November ends,
December births mangers
And shines new light to my heart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

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