THE LOVE MIRROR

Mirror mirror on the wall -
Who‘s the fairest of them all?

Mirror mirror, as they fall -
Who’s the dearest of them all?

Mirror mirror, hear them call -
Who’s the nearest of them all?

Mirror mirror, it is dull -
Who’s the clearest of them all?

The eyes are the window of the soul
And the mirror of the world within -
Mirror my soul, picture me whole,
Let me come in and let love begin.

Mirror mirror on the wall,
Who’s the surest of them all?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ALL BECAUSE OF LOVE

We make mistakes
And mistakes make us
Who we are
This is who we are

We make decisions
And decisions make us
What we are
This is what we are

We make friends
And friends make us
How we are
This is how we are

We make love
And love makes us
Why we are
This is why we are.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

PRE-SENSING

You read me with your sixth sense
That’s going too far, I settle for less
I read you with my primitive sense
My pre-sense
Half of all communication is unintended
Life is beautiful if we express it
And even more beautiful if we let it express itself
Through us in us as us for us to us with us
Inspite of us
You are a poem writing itself daily
Your spirit, your thoughts, your emotions, your body
Are flowing with the inner river
Drawn to me
With the purest of primitive intentions.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SONG OF RENEWAL

Once you burst the bubble,
Spare yourself the trouble;
Nothing that you do
can ever bring it back again.

The bubble had its season,
The bursting had its reason;
Their veracity’s value
Is not diminished by your pain.

The past looks real but isn’t,
The gift is in the present;
It makes you transform You -
The only goal you can truly attain.

Metamorphosis is life’s pleasure,
It’s a treasure beyond measure;
It makes you constantly renew
Your focus on your spiritual lane.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

ONE LOOK

If we could see ourselves through
Other people’s eyes, how much better
We would know ourselves and them too.

In the cold your gaze is a warm sweater
And when I’m lonely and missing you
Your eyes write me a wordless love letter.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BE RIGHT DO RIGHT

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

YOU CAN’T LEAVE YET

I ran left in a short vivid dream
When I was climbing up the flight of stairs
It was a flight of wide white marble stairs
Or so it did seem
But when I got to the top and turned back
Behind me was a steep drop
And a collapsed garden green from top
To bottom and no way back.
I found myself in the backyard of strangers
So I jumped over the cactus hedge
Onto the dusty brown street’s edge
There to hurry towards new dangers
Knocking on the locked red gate
Where a hurt soul had declared war
On the community I don’t know what for
But to escape is now too late.
Is it a dream or is it a mix-up?
I haven’t even told you how this one began
But the staircase disappeared and a man
Said you can’t leave yet and I woke up.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

MAKING SENSE

Some things don’t seem to make sense
And yet they’re right. You just feel it inside.
The intuition accompanies common sense
And makes it make sense from another side.
Life when seen through the heart’s full lens
Will reveal contexts that otherwise hide;
To a closed mind they appear like nonsense
But one day through facts they’ll be verified.
Some things that seemed to be an offence
Are an offence only to the rigidified;
Some that seemed real become pretence
When eventually exposed by time and tide.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

WORSHIP

When I’m down You give me strength
Atheists say You don’t exist
But You lift me up when I’m depressed
And calm me down and give me rest

How can I express my gratitude?
Nothing I am or give or do
Can come close to repaying You
For being so faithfully kind and merciful

Your Kindness is my sole inspiration
Your goodness os deserving of imitation
Your fidelity to rightness is a lesson
In integrity, severity mixed with compassion

People seek You in prayers and dogmas
In churches, mosques, temples and likewise
I seek You in Kindness and in Goodness
In Bravery, in Purity, in Humility, always.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

AGAIN AND AGAIN

The Heart does not forget overnight
Sometimes it needs more than one lifetime
To forget the way back to the Light
And the echo of the last Grail Bell’s chime

Again and again it reads the Message
Again and again it feels the pull of the Call
But the gains and pains of the Modern Age
Make it time and again slowly forget it All.

A sad day it is time and time again
When a soul rises again from its deathbed,
And all it’s relatives’ tears and pain
Will be nothing compared to its own regret.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river