Of Urbanness

THE GOD OF THE WILLING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

We cannot use God to hide away from the world. Rather we should use God to engage with, decipher and overcome the world. Above all, the world within us. God is not for cowards or weaklings. God is for the brave, the bold, the adventurous, the determined, the open, those who are ready to use the earthlife for that for which it was granted to them: to experience, and to grow through this experiencing.

The form or the content of the experiencing is different for each person. For some it is a quiet thing they need to experience, for others it is a loud thing; for some it is a popular thing they must dare, for others it is an unpopular or even a seemingly inconsequential thing; for some it is a controversial thing, for others it is a safe and boring and therefore annoying and unbearable thing; for some it is personal love, for others it is objective love.

Everybody has those things that will call their heart deeply – and running to God will still not free you from them. There is no escape because it is inside you. God is not there to hide you from yourself or from your challenges. God is there to help you to deal with them. That is why HE granted you this earth life, because HE knows you will need every second of whatever length of time you earned for yourself in this current incarnation.

So, get to work! Go for it. Set off with the business of living by experiencing. God will help you if you are brave and honest.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

WHEN YOU STOP WANTING

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When you stop wanting to know everything,
You start knowing what to really want;
When you start wanting to grow into winning,
You start growing, focused, up and to the front.

Never forget the kind of people and things
That rejected you when you were nobody and nothing,
Your knowledge of them shall be the wings
That shall fly you over obstacles into your blessing.

Absorb the pain and become serious,
Trudge through the terrain no matter how tedious,
Be your true self and you’ll be mysterious,
And never return to all that was injurious.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE TRAIN

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
The train is full of hopes
And full of broken hearts
Full of starts and stops
A moving story of many parts.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A RESTAURANT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
They come in with empty stomachs
And leave with full hearts -
A restaurant is a homestead in public,
A social comforter of sorts.

A smile tastes as good as wine,
And the sound of laughter
Will be your lifeline
And quench your hunger long after.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HARMATTAN LEAVES

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
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

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

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

BE WHO YOU ARE

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It does not matter who your father is,
Or was. It only matters who you are;
Throw off the reputational burden of his
Life, whether a nobody, a crook or a star.

It does not matter who your mother is,
Was, or will be. You have your own destiny.
Be firm in rejecting her spirit’s liabilities,
Nor bask in her glory. Write your own story.

Never ever allow family to be your bondage.
If wealth is not health, detach and go higher.
The chains of name, blood, and heritage
Are human assumptions, not God’s desire.

God wants each unique creature to be true,
So experience and enrich the world as You.
Free your children too from the Obligation to
Follow, serve, help, complete or redeem you.

If your story happens to be your family’s too,
Then so be it, that’s who you genuinely are.
But if your story is totally different and new,
Don’t feel guilty; accept and be who you are.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PASSING RIFFS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Little moments of life
In the corners of strife
Little stripes of light
Hidden out of sight
Hope is a melody, a song
Where we all belong
Sing along, old and young.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river