Of Virtues

GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF YOU

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When you do the right thing, you’re doing it for yourself. Always remember that. And let that be your motivation, your reward and your joy. Because you have to live with yourself always, and there is nothing worse than living with someone you don’t respect, someone you don’t trust, someone you don’t like and someone who is not in sync with you. And that person is yourself.

You are your own home, your own paradise or hell, and your own purgatory too in whom you have to recognise, discipline, purify and transform yourself. You are all you have. Handle yourself with care and with thought, with integrity. Any lesson you would like to teach your children one day, or wish you taught your children once upon a time, teach that lesson to yourself today. Lessons of character. Regard yourself as your first and last and only true child. If that child dies, you die.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

SELF-CONTROL

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
There are some you don’t take,
Even when they make themselves available,
For heaven’s and your dignity‘s sake -
Pleasure today will tomorrow be regrettable.

The line you draw will be your lifeline,
A line as high and thick as it is invisible and fine.
The gap you maintain will maintain your pride;
If you cross it, shame will become the great divide.

Some things it’s better not to do,
Not because of what you’ll gain or not gain,
But because of what it will take from you;
It can’t be repaired by even the deepest pain.

Honour makes a nation
And integrity makes a state -
The day you learn to resist temptation
Is the day you become great.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

FIGHT TO LIVE

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Fight to live
Force yourself to forgive
Weigh what you give
Let it come from the heart
But let it not be too heavy
Not everyone can bear the weight
Of your true inner state
There’s a lot on your plate
But others have their own plate too
Be light sometimes
Be easy sometimes
Let people smile sometimes
When they think of you
As they too fight to live.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

YOU

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
No one else but you -
Is this magic? Is this juju?
There is value in virtue
More powerful than voodoo.
No one else but you
I just had to woo you
And once I sort of knew you
I just had to do you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE POWER IN THE COURAGE TO BE TRUTHFUL

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
Truth is so powerful. There is almost nothing
That you cannot forgive a truthful person.
It’s a strange phenomenon. What is hurting
You is healing you, is teaching you a lesson.
Even while suffering, you can’t stop trusting.

Something about them awakens respect in us.
Truthful people fascinate the coward in us,
Inspire the warrior in us, touch the human in us.
In the depth of their sin, yet they carry the cross.
Even at their worst, they’re still the best of us.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SHARE YOUR LIGHT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Sometimes it‘s just a word that’s missing
At the right time and everything goes wrong
Hurting sounds like hissing
Caring sounds like dissing
Whispering sounds like kissing
And confirms what you knew all along.

But someone will cross your path today
Who needs a smile
Someone crying for help will be in your way
For a little while
Just a word, a look, a smile, a friendly touch
Will help them another mile.

Share your night and your fright
Share your might and your right
Share your sight and your insight
And share your plight and your flight
Share your fight and your bite
Share your height - and share your light.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

IN YOUR HEART

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
The joy of the brand new day
The happiness that wants to play
The laughter in your heart
Even when outside the sky is grey

Don’t let anything take your joy away
Fight for your right to be happy everyday
Fight for the light in your heart
Happiness is the Paradise of Today

Night and day, November or May,
Laughter is the currency in which you pay
For the gift of life in your heart.
My morning thoughts on a happy Sunday.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WORK CYCLE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Value from work
Dignity from value
Peace of mind from dignity
Peace in the world from peace of mind
Cooperation from peace in the world
Ideas from cooperation
Work from ideas
Value from work.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BE RIGHT DO RIGHT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
It‘s character that gets to heaven,
not knowledge. Knowledge might
know the way there even,
but only character can attain the height
of being, by doing,
not just by knowing.
Be right, do right, lets there be light.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

GOLD’S LOW STANDARDS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Who decided that gold is the standard?
Why do we think it is so valuable?
A shiny metal. Can we eat it? Yet we bombard
Humankind with unkind mined metal unable
To nourish spirit or body or soul or even mind -
But greed needs a rampart for greed is blind
And money is the mockery of the honest grind.

Silver and gold have brought sorrow untold
To the timid and the bold, the young and the old,
Warm-blooded and cold-hearted who all departed
Without a dust of gold from the path they started
Upon, seeking value in materialism’s charms
And losing their value in materialism’s arms’
Creeping stranglehold that grins and harms.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river