NO HOLDING BACK

Do your poem
Like you do your woman
Like you do your man

Strong and Tender
Deep and Intense
Lovingly dismember
In the present tense

No holding back
Do your poem
Like you do them
That love you back.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

DRIFTED APART

The truth must not only be true
But it must also appear to be true -
Or it will look like a lie.

You must not only be you
But you must also act like you
Or you will feel like a lie.

A small shift
A big rift
Swift

A brief lift
A Greek gift
Drift.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

EAGLE AT HEART

Landing in Barcelona

Sun-burnished
The sea slit
The morning lit up
Furnished my wit
The varnished mirror beneath me crawls
And over-yonder my sun it calls
Back tarnished memory bit by bit.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

DIFFERENT

To be vulnerable is to be honest.
To be honest is to be vulnerable.
To be different is to be vulnerable to be honest.
To be different is to be honest to be vulnerable.
It is a strange place to be everytime
No matter how many times you go there.
Each time it feels different.
It requires bravery everytime.
Even when you‘re familiar with it
Still you never get used to it.
Because it is different. Everytime.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

YOU AND YOUR STRENGTH

When I was younger
My strength was stronger
Than I was
And it made me do what it wanted
And made me undaunted.

Now that I am older
I have become bolder
Than my strength
And I make it do what I want
On every other battlefront.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

GET USED TO BLACK

Black is not a fad, and not a trend –
It was here first & it is here to stay ‘til the end.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

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)

FEAR NOT THE IDES OF MARCH

Fear not the Ides of March
Go boldly your path to the end
What’s unclear today, another Plutarch
Will explain one day again

Fear not the Ides of March
Fear is the foe of your nature
Your feet it’ll drag, tongue it’ll patch –
Heed not every Seer or Preacher

Fear not the Ides of March
Though your friends turn into traitors
Or family conspirators, sly and arch,
Join and jubilate with your tribulators

Fear not the Ides of March
Death cannot upturn your victory
Tough as larch and strong as starch
Shall eternally inspire your Story.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
15.03.2019

WHEN THE PATH FEELS WRONG, YOU SEARCH HARDER

You might sometimes find yourself, for long periods of your earthlife, striving after the wrong things; even worse, striving via the wrong principles and means; unaware of how you got there, sometimes unaware perhaps even of whatever it was you once really wanted, and not knowing how to change back onto the right track.

This is a trick that life plays on every Seeker – to force you to light up the inner Lantern within your consciousness; for the aim of the cocoon is to turn the caterpillar into a butterfly. So too does life make you blind in order to awaken your Insight – and then, nothing can blind you anymore apart from you yourself. Sometimes the wrong path is the right path, as long as you keep on honestly and tirelessly seeking. You will find yourself.

 – Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

TRUE ADULT

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