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

RELATIONSHIP PURPOSE

If you don’t make each other happy,
then what’s the point in being together?
To lift each other up when you’re feeling crappy,
And be there for one another in every weather.

And forgive each other when you make mistakes
And learn from your actions, mistakes and reactions
And make the effort to grow, no matter what it takes,
Learning to understand yourselves and your actions

Love is a house and a road,
Is a journey and a destination,
Is a relief and a load,
Is intensity and elation.
Love is your heart talking loud and clear,
Telling you this is who I want near and dear,
Telling you, Have no fear for I have no fear,
Anywhere we set off to, together, we will get there.

And when you laugh together
And when you grow together
You will one day thank the Almighty Father
For bringing you together.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

FOCUS ON THE ESSENTIAL

It‘s okay to lose people as long as
You don’t lose yourself in the process
No matter how tempting.

It’s okay to gain people as long as
You also gain yourself in the process
Inspite of how tempting
it is
to push aside your spiritual development
in order to chase after someone
who has gone outside
or to adjust to and enjoy someone
who has come inside.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHY DO WE HURT THE MOST?

Why do we hurt the most
The people whom we love the most
And who love us the most?
Why do we push away the strongest
The people who pull us the deepest?
Why do we understand the least
The people who understand us the most?
Why do we lose
Those who have found us?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

Free yourself of the fear of losing her
Free yourself of the thought of having
Or not having her
That’s not for you to control or decide
Only God has that Power
The only power you have is the power of love
All you can do is to love her
Love is life and Love is light
If you have love in your heart for her
Then just love her
And if you have no way of directly giving
Or showing that love to her
Then just let the love flow through you
And flow out of you
And flow out into the universe…

Your love will find its way to her
In the workings of the universe
One way or another.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains and
Poems from the inner river

INDEPENDENT HEART

I never knew the heart was an independent thing
Until I met you and my heart started to sing
And to fly towards you with unfolded wings

And to ignore me when I called it back

But has continued to you to cling
And to me aching and longing to bring
And to say This is the Queen for you my King.

And continues to ignore me when I call it back.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TO KILL A MAN

I‘ve died a thousand times
And each time I’ve come back to life again

If I die one more time
Will I be able to survive this new pain?

Something must break a man one day -
Something he did say, or a game he did play,
Or a woman that one day crosses his way.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SNIPPETS

Hard words are sometimes the kindest
Foraging eyes are sometimes the blindest
Life’s help is sometimes to put you to the test
It pushes you to move when you long to rest

I’ve never wanted something so badly before
I’ve never eaten to my fill and still wanted some more
I’ve never said goodbye and continued to feel so sore
I’ve never been so trapped before in a folklore

So many new things starting at the same time
Be patient when you’re looking for the right rhyme
Little doses of salt and pepper, curry and thyme
Life is sometimes a little sugar, sometimes a little lime

I love like Haily’s comet, ever and again I come again
Laughter fills my heart again and conquers the pain
I can’t explain it, I am a lake and I am the rain
And so are you, and every end is just another refrain.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE MOST VULNERABLE THING

The most vulnerable thing in this world is to open up to a person, to show the person your secrets and your true condition. To share with the person your dreams, your hopes, your fears, your phobia, your trauma, your beliefs, your feelings, your propensities, your weaknesses, your childlikeness, your unprotected true nature.

When you have thus exposed yourself to a person, vulnerable to the core, and the person – after taking a good look at you – rejects or betrays you, and directly or indirectly communicates to you that they find you to be unworthy of them, the damage that this experience can cause to a human soul is almost beyond the purview of what words can accurately describe. It is exceedingly humiliating, dehumanising, and robs you of your sense of self-worth.

It also gives reason to ask yourself, if you too have ever done the same to another human being, maybe even without realising it, and maybe you have even forgotten it. If you have, then it pays to reflect on how to reach those people once more and offer them correction, retribution, a cure, or just true heartfelt apology and remorse for having broken their soul.

Most of all, though, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the question of whether a human being’s sense of self-worth should at all be wholly or partly dependent on how they are seen or held or treated by another human being, probably one whom they love, or sometimes even a stranger. Or whether a human being’s sense of worth should be rooted only and solely in their own inner strength and inner dignity and Inner fidelity to their own core values. Or if it is a mixture of both extremes.

One thing is for sure, though, and that is that no matter how we see it, the reality is that even the strongest people are affected by how they are seen and treating by one person or the other, consciously or unconsciously, either a stranger or more commonly someone that they deeply love. No matter how we see it, we owe the duty to ourselves as human beings to be thoughtful, careful, honest – honest to ourselves and also honest to others – in order not to disappoint a valid expectation of reflected worthiness.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

TRUTH IS THE REFEREE OF TRUST

Truth is the referee of trust. Truth and truthfulness, not perfection. Nobody is perfect and everybody does wrong sometimes or makes mistakes. Trust does not hinge on perfection and it cannot do so. Trust hinges on truth and truthfulness. You trust people, not because they are perfect, but because they are honest to you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains