SERVICE

In the morning when the sun arises
A light shall also dawn within you,
A clarity that intrinsically recognises
What on Earth you are supposed to do -

To awaken to service to the good,
For kindness, honesty, courage and humility
Are life’s deeper nourishment and food
And the template of humanity.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

YOU KNOW

Go at your own pace
Let no one hurry you
Your life has deeper value
Than just to be in a race.

Frame your own narrative
Own your own story
Share your own memory
Everybody’s is selective.

Only you know
Deep within your soul
Your heart’s true goal
You alone know.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BAY OF HEART

There is always something to say
And no one to say it to
The heart is a deep wide bay
Where stories and strangers sail into
To quietly offload, sit and recuperate
Locked in the soliloquy of the seeker
The pain-cooked rebirth to elevate
Phoenix back to Light in a world grown bleaker.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner rivero

JUST THE TWO OF US

If it’s just the two of us, let it be just the two of us. Don’t believe what anyone from outside tells you.

If I open myself to you then, believe me, nobody knows me better than you do.

Trust your heart and trust me. The exclusive magic at the core of our love will see us through.

But if you fail to bring up the courage to believe, or if you yield to outside influence, you damage our super glue.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

DENIED

If you died
Right now
Ask yourself
What have you lied
To yourself
About.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A RESTAURANT

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

PARALLEL UNIVERSES

When a person just doesn’t know how to tell you the truth, they simply stick to the lie. From start to finish. Even if they want to tell you the truth, they don’t know how to, they don’t know where to start because the truth runs on a completely different storyline and separate lifestyle, opposite reality and parallel universe. It will hurt you deeply and completely overturn your view of life and of them. Or so the person thinks. But if only they would try you, to see a new person emerge and a new powerful authentic relationship form.

Starting with a lie is always a slippery slope, a rollercoaster ride. It is nervousness and heart palpitations from start to finish. It can be exciting and exhilarating, until it becomes human and personal. Then it becomes a chore, a nightmare, a heavy load, and a puzzling sphinx, a difficult riddle to solve. Tell the truth and shatter the other person’s reality? Or maintain the lie and allow it to eat you inside and gnaw at the other person’s gut instincts, and prevent both of you from ever forming a true bond? And yet, only the truth liberates.

There will be a humanity one day of honest human spirits who live, share and relate in the light of truth always and in all things. Deeply and simply. Inside and out. Individually and as a society. The most fundamental truth we owe ourselves as human beings is the truth of how we really are as a person. This is the basis of all relationships and of society and of a possibility to one day have a reflection of Paradise on Earth. A home away from Home.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

WHAT HUMANS CAN DO

A.I. can only do
What has been done before

Only humans
Can do truly new things

Spirit, give me more –
New hearts beat on different strings.
Spirit, give me those things
That only human spirits can do.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

I WISH YOU WELL

Though you hurt me
I wish you well
I pray that true love
Lift you where you fell
I pray that God’s Light
Illuminates your heart
I pray that good things
Line up your travel chart
And may it be well with you
In everything that you do.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

MARCH TOWARDS APRIL

So many things ending in my life this month, as March ends. And so many things starting. Looking forward to April. Is my heart big enough to contain and bear it all? Yes, my heart is always big enough. And when it isn’t, it simply grows some more, grows again.

Aries, as ever, you end the old and bring the new. For me, to me, in me.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains