HOMEWORK

We have to become beautiful
Inside and outside
And stop roaming the earth full
Of shame and pride
Looking for a Paradise
That is ours and ours alone to make -
Until we arise
At home, our success abroad is fake.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE GOD OF THE WILLING

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

THE MATTER

Do you see me,
I don’t see me.

Do you see you,
I don’t see you.

Do you see us,
I don’t see us.

Do you see them,
I don’t see them.

But do you see it,
I see it. It is all I see.

The objective, the goal
The constructive’s soul.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WHEN YOU STOP WANTING

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

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

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

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

NEVER STOP

Don’t be ashamed and don’t be afraid
To follow your heart and go for your love;
Rejection can shatter the plans best laid –
The important thing is that your heart did move
And you moved outwardly along with this inner motion,
For movement is the spirit’s most important need –
It will climb every mountain and cross every ocean
Until it has itself from all its shackles freed.
The soul will always love something or someone,
And this love will make it laugh and make it bleed
And make it outgrow itself and never be done,
Following the path Home wherever it may lead.
Some chapters end in joy, and some end in sorrow,
But neither of these can hold the spirit down forever –
An inner restlessness will grip it again tomorrow;
Until it gets back Home, it will never stop. Never.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE INNER STREET

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

RIGHT THINGS

Do the right things
And do the things right
Spread your light wings
And make your wings light
Whatever the flight brings
Inner buoyancy brings flight
Up into the bright rings
Where happiness rings bright.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river