DAY’S START

A peace of mind and a peace of heart -
The path outlined on the inner chart -
Ready to make of love life’s highest art -
A peace of mind and a piece of your heart -
This is how the day should start.

You of me, I of you, a part -
Nothing and no one can tear us apart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ONLY ONE THING

A new phase
A new song plays
My heart differently prays
The end of days
The going of new ways
Only one thing stays
The same, missing you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

GORDIAN KNOT

I can’t find the words
I can’t find the right chords
Our messages have become swords

Cutting deeper than we thought.
Will they cut through our Gordian knot
And free us? Or not? But free us from what?

From ourselves or from our fears?
My anxiety level and my tears
Will colour the remainder of my years.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TIME TO PART

It’s time to part
With peace of heart,
Reconciliation the chart -
Lord, how great Thou art.

Finally letting go
Of pain and sorrow,
Of wanting and woe -
You reap what you sow.
You forgive, forget and grow.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVERS AND TRUTH

Lovers, you have to tell yourselves the truth. The only thing that may unite or separate you is the truth. The only thing that should keep you together or tear you apart is the truth. The only thing that can really merge or divide you is the truth. Truth is a function of love and love is a function of truth. You cannot separate them one from the other because the aim of love is to give you freedom but, as we know, only the truth can set you free.

If you love something, set it free – if it comes back to you, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. If you love something, tell it the truth – if it stays with you, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. If something claims that it loves you, ask it the truth – if it tells you the truth, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. Truth is the ultimate determiner of love.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

NEVER STOP

Don’t be ashamed and don’t be afraid
To follow your heart and go for your love;
Rejection can shatter the plans best laid –
The important thing is that your heart did move
And you moved outwardly along with this inner motion,
For movement is the spirit’s most important need –
It will climb every mountain and cross every ocean
Until it has itself from all its shackles freed.
The soul will always love something or someone,
And this love will make it laugh and make it bleed
And make it outgrow itself and never be done,
Following the path Home wherever it may lead.
Some chapters end in joy, and some end in sorrow,
But neither of these can hold the spirit down forever –
An inner restlessness will grip it again tomorrow;
Until it gets back Home, it will never stop. Never.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ASK NOT

All I asked for was the truth -
But that question alone
was enough
to disturb, to disrupt
and to destroy everything.

Ask, and you shall be given.
Ask not, and you shall be forgiven.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVE IS STRANGE

Love is a strange thing
It makes you accept stranger things
And forgive the strangest of things.

You know you love someone
When you’re ready to forgive them
Anything and everything
As long as they love you back.

Love is the crime -
Those who refuse to commit
Receive no pardon
And never get to do the time
Of their lives.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHENEVER

Sometimes there is
Sometimes there isn’t
A perfect time for things

Sometimes you wait
Sometimes you just do it
When your heart stings
And your love bell rings

Whenever it comes
Just flow with it
Taking whatever it brings
On wild or on gentle wings
When your heart sings.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE LIFE WITHIN

Allow love to conquer you
Allow love to be your leader
Allow love to reorder you
Allow love to be your healer

Let love break you
Let love shake and wake you
Let love take you
Let love unmake and remake you

When love enters, you’re in
When love goes, you sin
When love wins, you win
Love is the life within.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river