MOVE!

Move! You have to move!
Always you have to move move move!
Change change change! Move
And move again and again
Keep moving keep changing your lane
Joy and pain sunshine and rain playing and praying
And always adjusting and recalibrating
And moving and moving and moving
And constantly growing and improving.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A QUIET LIFE

A quiet life
You come and you go
And barely anyone noticed
You or your halo.

This distant planet
The Earth she’s called
You visited and then were
Quietly recalled.

Some people don’t talk much
You don’t even know they’re there
But their hearts are deep
And full of care.

But their hearts are deep
And full of care
Treasure the quiet ones
While they’re still here.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

GREETINGS ALONG THE WAY

Every flight is a flight of fantasy
Every journey is a journey of discovery
Every departure is a departure from routine
Every arrival is an arrival somewhere in between

Every stranger is of a stranger kind
Every meeting is a meeting of minds
Every parting is a parting of the Red Sea
Every greeting is…

Wait! Greetings. The greetings
Are the closest we’ll come to most humans.
Put into them the earnestness of meetings -
They are often our sole communions.

With eyes, with words, with gestures,
With a handshake or an embrace -
Greetings in all their textures
Help us to feel our human race.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

GO YOUR WAY

Don‘t take everything
That comes your way
For the way has everything

The way will make you lose your way
If you believe everything
And take everything
That the way brings your way

Learn to look away
From the way
When the way
Is not going your way

Know the way
And know your way
And know the difference.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TIME MATTERS

If there were no time
There would be no pleasure
For there would be no experiencing,
No piling up of inner treasure,
No maturing, no developing,
No struggle against which to measure
Growth, delicious, ever unfolding,
For eternity gained is the time spent.
If there were no time,
If Everything happened in one moment,
There would be no rhyme.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WAY BACK HOME

Don‘t mourn me when I die
Wave me goodbye
I will be going home

If I miss my way home
Then I will come
Back again to retry.

So don’t mourn me when I die
I did not come to stay
I came here to find my way

Back Home.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NATIVE TO YOU

God’s World is not foreign
It is indigenous
After you’ve finished touring
You return to us

God’s Law is not complex
It is very simple
Needs no super intelligence
To do the needful

God’s Love is not exotic
It is native
Homeliness is romantic
Non-invasive

You are not an alien
In God’s eyes
Be at peace with yourself
And you will rise.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BATTLE FATIGUES

I carry tiredness around with me
Like a pouch, like a backpack,
From which I draw humility
And simplicity
As compensation for the strength I lack.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

RESTLESSNESS

Good Morning
To every urge that always makes you get up;
Good Morning
To every discomfort that has never let up;
Good Morning
To every dream that lifts your head up;
Good Morning
To every memory that makes you fed up
With lying down lamenting and self-compromising
While the day is dawning and the sun is rising;
Good Morning to restlessness,
The twin-partner of purposefulness.
Get up! and keep seeking to reach, or grasp, the Horizon -
No matter what you have found before
There is always something more.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

Read also the book: THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING MORE

HOPE TO BE FOUND

Line your pockets with seeds of hope
Find purpose when you secretly grope
through your hidden emotions, touch
one, touch all, no emotion is too much,
no matter how intense. The deeper
the grip, the closer it is to the reaper -
And you are the reaper of what you sow.
Empty your pockets of what you know
As you walk the road leave a flower trail
The Grail finds you if you seek the Grail.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river