Of Self

IT TAKES TIME TO BE FREE

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

After I had rid myself
Of my father’s voice in my head
And my mother’s voice in my heart
And society’s voice in my ears
And fear’s voice in my throat
I stopped on a quiet morning
And listened to the sound of

My own voice
My own thoughts
My own intuition
My own will
My own way of seeing myself and seeing the world
And oh! How different it was
From what I had once thought was me.

Dazed in this silence
I looked and looked at me and me
Getting used to the sight … and feel… of me I
For it’s new when the mirror becomes an open window
Now I know why liberated birds hesitate before flying away
And why they take a while to get their bearing
And why they never return once they feel at home again in the wild.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO LIVE WITH A STRANGER?

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

You cannot find like-minded people
Until you know your own mind
If you know not what you seek
You won’t know when you find
You will walk with your enemies
Your friends you’ll leave behind
You will feel no sense of belonging
Wherever you yourself bind
For without a sense of orientation
Or self-knowledge, you are blind.

And then there are those that will say:
You must stick to your own kind

So some stick to their race
And some to their nation
Some to religion and faith
Some to culture and tradition
Some stick to their gender
Some stay in a certain generation
Some remain within a field of thought
Or choose those of like inclination
Some share in an agenda
Some an intuitive perception

Some are united in what they seek
Some are united in what they find

Some will leave you when they find you
Because it is themselves that they seek
Some will seek you when they lose you
Because it was you who took them to their mountain-peak
And showed them their inner freak
Because – give me a break –
Who on earth does not secretly
Want to be a freak?

You like the taste of many soups
And are a part of many groups
And yet nobody knows who you really are deep inside –
Not even you yourself, with whom you always abide.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

JUST DANCE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

A road of water, slippery
A bridge of knife-edge, treacherous
A fall of repetition, weakening
An opacity of reflection, saddening
A backdoor of wall, illusionary
A tiger of library, jealous
A conscience of intuition, merciless
Hardfall on softpain, intangibles
Awakening twice, once to life and once to self
Accepting the conditions of the journey
Intangibles, contradictions, repetitions, unpredictables
Armed with Intuition and intellect
Go with the flow.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HOMETOWN OF THE SOUL

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

There is no other reward than finding yourself

The reward is finding yourself
And experiencing the joy of being yourself

It might seem like a small reward to you now
But when you’ve tasted everything else
Then you’ll understand that this is the greatest reward

Anything that emerges from deep within me
Is native to me
My hometown is a state of being

My state of being.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNRECONCILED

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I know they get in your way
They try to tell you we don’t belong together
They force you to lead a parallel existence
We’re living double lives

But behold a paradox:
In the lakes of their knowledge
You came up ignorant
In the garden of your ignorance
They found the seeds of knowledge

Who reinvented you?
Someone surely did
And it certainly wasn’t you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EASY NOW

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I see only nothing –
Emptiness has suffocated the world.
Hollowness on the inside…
Bring yourself to the fore
And stop hiding like a scared animal
In the darkness of your fear of societal assumptions.
Stop being a learned act on the stage of life –
Stop being a masquerade in the market-place of shared dreams…
Be yourself!

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

BEING TRUE TO WHOM YOU’VE BECOME

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

When your people come calling
Big Brother and all
Will you be able to resist the pressure?
Will you still be you
The You you now are?

When your people come calling
Will they assign again to you your old role
Or will you assign to everybody a new role?
Will you still be you
The You you now are?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.