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
Of Travel And Sojourn
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
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
NO HOME AWAY
I walk through the valley of pain on my own
By the time friends come I’m already gone
I am All the colours between black and brown
Call me Africa or call me Diaspora, a birded song
Fly without perching, there’s no home away from home.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
EAGLE AT HEART
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
MEMORYLESS TRAVEL
You have to get there to remember.
On the way there you will forget
Where you are going to
And why.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
POEMS DON‘T CHANGE
Places change people
People change places
Places change people
People change places
Races change people
People change races
Races change people
People change races
Faces change people
People change faces
Faces change people
People change faces
The person who started this poem
Is not the person who finished it.
Poems change people –
But people don‘t change poems.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 