Of Social Beings

PARALLEL UNIVERSES

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When a person just doesn’t know how to tell you the truth, they simply stick to the lie. From start to finish. Even if they want to tell you the truth, they don’t know how to, they don’t know where to start because the truth runs on a completely different storyline and separate lifestyle, opposite reality and parallel universe. It will hurt you deeply and completely overturn your view of life and of them. Or so the person thinks. But if only they would try you, to see a new person emerge and a new powerful authentic relationship form.

Starting with a lie is always a slippery slope, a rollercoaster ride. It is nervousness and heart palpitations from start to finish. It can be exciting and exhilarating, until it becomes human and personal. Then it becomes a chore, a nightmare, a heavy load, and a puzzling sphinx, a difficult riddle to solve. Tell the truth and shatter the other person’s reality? Or maintain the lie and allow it to eat you inside and gnaw at the other person’s gut instincts, and prevent both of you from ever forming a true bond? And yet, only the truth liberates.

There will be a humanity one day of honest human spirits who live, share and relate in the light of truth always and in all things. Deeply and simply. Inside and out. Individually and as a society. The most fundamental truth we owe ourselves as human beings is the truth of how we really are as a person. This is the basis of all relationships and of society and of a possibility to one day have a reflection of Paradise on Earth. A home away from Home.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

SHOW YOU

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Show people who you are
So that those who want to go will go
And those who want to stay will stay
And those who want to come will come
And those who want to keep away will keep away.

And when they show you who they are
You will be hurt by some who go
And be pleasantly surprised by some who stay,
You will be amazed by some who come
And you will not even notice those who keep away. 

Show people who you are
And they will show you who they are.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BONDS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
We belong to God,
Not to one another.
Possessiveness is flawed,
No one owns the other.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

MOVING THROUGH WORLDS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Moving through worlds
Like a thought moving through minds -
Changing and being changed
By everything and everyone one finds.

Worlds as different as different can be,
Minds as far apart as distance can be,
Hearts as strange as strangers can be,
And yet in all these places you still can be.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE INNER STREET

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
The people on the street
The street on the people
Weighing them down…

The people in the street
The street in the people
Lifting them up…

What we push down
Will one day rise back up.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ON THE STREET

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
There are people who live on the street
The street’s human face and heartbeat
By rain and sun, by snow and by sleet
These are those people that we meet
Shuffling past and huddling by our feet
Who we glance barely by and rarely greet
Kindness, it seems, is truly a mean feat.

Arw we afraid to share in their defeat?
Is life a race in which we all compete?
Does shame force the broken to retreat?
Do losers get an opportunity to repeat?
People at their lowest don’t need our conceit.
A part of ourselves lives on the street
Looking for dignity, a roof and something to eat.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

STRANGE WAYFELLOWS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
People are already on a path when you meet them,
On their own path, with their own mission.
You think they’re walking with you, but then
Suddenly they jump off at some junction.
As strange and disorienting as it seems to you,
The truth is that it was not a new decision
That they took. They were never really with you,
They were always going in their own direction.
You were just entertainment along the way
Or brief company, and victim of an illusion.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the Inner river

THE LOUD CROWD

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
The loud crowd
Is soft to my heart
Their warmth is gold
When they smile they hold
My heart with love untold
In their family fold.
Good people don’t need
To be perfect to lead -
Their goodness leads you home.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NICENESS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Don‘t slip on the ice,
Be careful when being nice
To strangers on the way,
For the way will waylay
The unwary and open heart
For whom niceness is the chart.
Temper your eagerness
With a measure of carefulness,
Protect your friendliness
With the practice of watchfulness.
Niceness has a reputation
For being an open invitation
To those who take to take again
Not caring if it causes pain.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PEOPLE’S SIGNALS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments 
Pay attention to the signals
That people give you;
Take them seriously -
The signals won’t deceive you.

No one says everything;
They leave it to you
To figure it out if you’re smart
And paying attention too.

And above and beneath it all
Your own inner voice
Will analyse the signals and more
And make its own choice.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river