STOP ACCEPTING LIES

Stop accepting lies
Dressed up as niceness –
Humiliation lies
In falsehood, not kindness.
Empty conversations
Masking your blindness –
A Disappointed Soul
Will answer with silence.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LEARNING

Take your time to know.
Find your space to grow.
Time and space are seeds you sow
To reap maturity tomorrow.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SLEEP WALKER

Every night when I sleep and wake up in the morning , I jump large distances. I don’t know where I go when I’m sleeping, but I never wake up where I fell asleep. The person who sleeps at night, dies, and a new person wakes up in the morning. So, if you were in my heart before I died in the night, and you are still or again in my heart when I wake up, as a new person, in the morning, then know that I truly love you, for you are anchored at a depth within me that is deeper than all the changes. But the day I wake up and check inside my heart and you are no more there, then know that a fundamental change has taken place within me. The person who exists now does not know or recognise you and does not love you anymore.

Friends, waste not the night. Pray before you fall asleep, and let your spirit walk, through its interactions and reflections, to its next station of development; yea, and let your spirit jump at night to its new conclusions. The night is not meant for sleeping. The night is meant for weeping, for keeping pace with your spiritual development, for healing, for recharging your solar plexus, and for leaping to new recognitions. Only the mind sleeps off at night, when it has grown tired of thinking. But the spirt, the spirit is awake. So, something continues to happen at the back of your mind. And what your spirit learns while your body is asleep, it will attempt to reveal to your intellect, your day-conscious mind, in the morning when you wake up again. But we don’t always understand, and we don’t always remember.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

SOMEONE

You will hurt somebody
And somebody will hurt you
You will heal somebody
And somebody will heal you
You will help somebody
And somebody will help you
You will hinder somebody
And somebody will hinder you.

For every vice
And for every virtue
There’s someone to take it
And someone to give it to you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TIME TO PART

It’s time to part
With peace of heart,
Reconciliation the chart -
Lord, how great Thou art.

Finally letting go
Of pain and sorrow,
Of wanting and woe -
You reap what you sow.
You forgive, forget and grow.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ADJUSTING

You overcome the pain
By becoming one with it.
You lighten the rain
By learning to dance in it.
You conquer rejection
By accepting it.
You unburden affection
By confessing it.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HARMATTAN LEAVES

Dusty green leaves
Harmattan leaves you husky
With the haze of dawn and dusk
West Africa will Chest Saharan breath
Lovingly for three months
Until it springs into the Atlantic
Like a restless traveller into his lover.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BEFORE I SLEEP

The tropical warmth
With teeth as strong as roots
Beating on lion skin drums
Evening voiced on bamboo flutes
Fleeting memory
That happened too long ago
To be remembered properly
Before I sleep more miles to go.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE LONELY JOURNEY

The lonely journey
Following your intuition
Following your conviction
Following your sensing
Constantly needing someone
But having no one
To talk to.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE LIFE WITHIN

Allow love to conquer you
Allow love to be your leader
Allow love to reorder you
Allow love to be your healer

Let love break you
Let love shake and wake you
Let love take you
Let love unmake and remake you

When love enters, you’re in
When love goes, you sin
When love wins, you win
Love is the life within.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river