THE HURTING LOVE

The Love of God
Will hurt you -
Make no mistake about that -
In order to cure you.

Are you ready to grow?
To reap what you sow?
To be polished until you glow?
To go with the flow
Wherever God’s wind may blow?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PAIN AND GAIN

Without the pain
My life would have been so empty,
My spirit’s real gain
Are the lessons and they are plenty.

It is really possible
To lose a person and become whole,
It is really possible
To lose the world and gain your soul.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SHAME

Don’t be ashamed
Of your feeling of shame
For your ability to feel ashamed
Protects you from coming to shame.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

FINDING VALUE

Separate yourself from things
In order to know the value of things
Go deep into things
In order to learn the true value in things

Separate yourself from people
In order to know the value of people
Come close to, go deep into, people
In order to see the true value in people

Metamorphose away from yourself
In order to know the value of yourself
Develop again into your true self
In order to feel the value in being yourself.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TO KILL A MAN

I‘ve died a thousand times
And each time I’ve come back to life again

If I die one more time
Will I be able to survive this new pain?

Something must break a man one day -
Something he did say, or a game he did play,
Or a woman that one day crosses his way.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SNIPPETS

Hard words are sometimes the kindest
Foraging eyes are sometimes the blindest
Life’s help is sometimes to put you to the test
It pushes you to move when you long to rest

I’ve never wanted something so badly before
I’ve never eaten to my fill and still wanted some more
I’ve never said goodbye and continued to feel so sore
I’ve never been so trapped before in a folklore

So many new things starting at the same time
Be patient when you’re looking for the right rhyme
Little doses of salt and pepper, curry and thyme
Life is sometimes a little sugar, sometimes a little lime

I love like Haily’s comet, ever and again I come again
Laughter fills my heart again and conquers the pain
I can’t explain it, I am a lake and I am the rain
And so are you, and every end is just another refrain.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVE IS THE LIGHT OF THE HEART

Love is a light
It illumines the heart
And makes it bright

And it is light
Like a winged cart
Rising to the height

Love is a chart
It always goes right
Right from the start

Love is the highest art
Love is the deepest light
Of which Happiness is a part.

Love is the light of the heart
Love is the happiness of the heart
Love is the strength of the heart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HEAVY WITH THE WEIGHT

The snow is red but not with envy
Heavy with the weight of thought
Waiting for the warmth of friendship
Forgiveness and love and a drop
Of sunlight to melt into the ground
Going it looks ugly but it’s not
Letting go of what you thought you’d found
But, patience, the Earth will eat it all up.
Are you snowing, are you falling
Are you resting, are you thawing
Are you meting, are you calling
For companionship while you’re withdrawing?
Slowly withdrawing…

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A PART OF YOU

Sometimes a part of you
Can live outside of you
And run away from you
And refuse to come back to you
And will ignore you
And will not recognise you
And will reject you
And will hurt you
And will avoid you

Because the reason why
It is living outside of you
Is in order to find itself
And fully become itself
Through struggle, experiencing and reflection
Uninfluenced by you
In order to one day be able
To complement you
And be complemented by you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ONE LOVE

You can only love one person, you can never love two people or even more. True love. In order to love another person, you have to first change and become a different person. But the person who loved that first person can never ever love another person. Once your heart has bonded, it can never ever unbond again, until it dies and becomes born again as a new heart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains