Heed the Voice within your heart
The Inner Voice in you
Hear your role and play your part
That’s the Golden Rule
Though it sounds childlike and slow
And full of oldschool rules
It’s the only way to know
The true adult in you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
You made me a thousand promises
And heartlessly broke them all
But the Moment I will know the greatest sorrow
Is when you break that one vow
Which you solemnly made to yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
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.
To encompass a mighty tale
Within the letters of a little poem
Little sentence, little phrase
One little word
To start with the clue and end with the question
To give the world in every act
To live a life never lived before
By you.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
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.
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.
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.
There are many things
That seem to be the same
But are not
Just like dawn and dusk
Those two strangers
Who have a way of appearing similar
And yet have never met
Or seen
Nor ever will
Nor ever be the same.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Footprints on sand
What is the proof that you ever lived?
What is record of self?
What is confirmation of identity?
Passport? No. Insufficient.
Fingerprints? No. Mute.
You. Spirit. Spirit is evidence.
Speak your mind before you die.
Character. Be yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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.
