REAFFIRMING DIGNITY

When a woman leaves a man who loves her to follow a man of money, it is the most crushing pain a man can feel. But if he does not let it kill him, it will only liberate him in the end. Every once in a while you have a chance to look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself “I am somebody”. Something will push you there. Something that seems aimed at robbing you of your dignity, your pride, your self-respect. Something that will try to tie your actual value as a human being to some material status or achievement or level of acceptance by someone or some people. Something that will make you feel small. And nothing does this deeper than love that chooses money over you. Then you have to stand in front of the mirror and look into the soul of that man staring back at you and recognise his true value. Remind yourself of the principles at the core of your foundations as a Human Being. Remind yourself of what connects you to God and to true life. And teach yourself again that your value is more than your monetary wealth or material standing. And don’t allow anyone to tell you otherwise – not any man and not any woman. Because, In Your Dignity, You Are Somebody.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

SELF-CONTROL

There are some you don’t take,
Even when they make themselves available,
For heaven’s and your dignity‘s sake -
Pleasure today will tomorrow be regrettable.

The line you draw will be your lifeline,
A line as high and thick as it is invisible and fine.
The gap you maintain will maintain your pride;
If you cross it, shame will become the great divide.

Some things it’s better not to do,
Not because of what you’ll gain or not gain,
But because of what it will take from you;
It can’t be repaired by even the deepest pain.

Honour makes a nation
And integrity makes a state -
The day you learn to resist temptation
Is the day you become great.

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

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

HAPPILY

Happy wife, happy life.
Happy Ex, happy Next.
If you don’t want stress,
Spread Happiness.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

I HURT BADLY

There are pains I could bear
When I was younger
Which I cannot bear
Any longer

When I was younger, I was tougher
My heart could recover
Now I’m older, I’m harder
No longer a bender, now a breaker

No longer a healer, now a hurter
So I don’t engage
Unnecessarily, I don’t bother
I just turn a new page.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE OLD IN THE NEW

Every new thing you meet
Is an old thing to someone else
What to you is a new beat
Others have rocked from ever since

Your new love is someone’s old flame
Burning low but burning still
Because people stay the same
Captive to their former thrill

Battles you assumed were done
Suddenly resurface demanding review
Friends you thought were long gone
Suddenly come again to protect you

Nothing you meet is new
It is old to someone and to itself
It might even be old to you
But you simply don’t realise it yet.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SELF-CONFIDENCE

Confidence.
The beginning and the end
Of Fulfilment.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

WEAKNESS

The greatest strength
is the strength to look beyond
your own strength
and find in your weakness
strength in other people’s strength.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
#poemsthatmakeyouthink

BOYS TO MEN

The older I get,
The more I miss my father.
The more knowing I grow,
The more I miss him.
The more I know him.
The more I understand him.
We live life forwards,
But understand life backwards.
When it‘s too late to change anything,
That’s when we understand everything.
The young shall grow.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
(I just feel like remembering today)