I’m in a garden full of fruits But I am not hungry, And what I crave only Is buried deep down in the roots. And I am waiting patiently For it to sprout again And no pleasure can dull the pain Or nourish me substantially. Some waits last long, longer Than a lifetime or two; Reincarnation is the cue To re-become younger and stronger. Don’t hurry your wounds, Let them heal at their own pace; Life and love are not a race, Some years have thirteen moons. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
change
HINDSIGHT AND THE PRESENT
When trying to understand people’s actions in the past, always remember this: Everything people did, they always did in the present. That moment was, for them, the only real thing that was. They did not have the vantage point of hindsight which you have now, relative to that moment.
The same thing applies today. This moment now, today, right now, which for you is the realest thing there is, and which confronts you with challenges that sometimes tear you apart, or options that fill you with certainty, this moment too will one day look different when seen in retrospect through the telescopic gaze of the hindsight of others and of yourself. When the world has changed and you too have become someone else.
Just like you’re sometimes not sure today what decision you should take, that’s how those people too were not sure yesterday what decision they should make. And just like you sometimes do something now with the certainty of its rightness, that’s how they too in certainty did something which today, with hindsight, we now realise was wrong. In retrospect. Consciousness is always trapped in the present. Even the consciousness that imagines the future, has itself not left the present.
The past is only the past today. Yesterday, when it was happening, it was not the past. It was the present. And being the present it felt just as real to everybody there and then as the present feels to you right now. Certain and iron-clad. Thus, every decision that everybody makes must always be judged in the light of the time and circumstances in which it was made, in order to really understand it.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
NEW FORMS
The ground is drifting
How ever firmly you stand
How ever fast you run
The goalpost is shifting
The only changeless thing
Is the Will of God
Manifested in His Laws
That bind us in a firm ring
Go with the flow
Be not afraid of new forms
No matter what comes
It will help you to grow.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
WHO ARE YOU TODAY?
It is better to know a person’s character than to know the person’s history. You might think that you will not know the character fully if you don’t know the history, and there might be some truth to that. However the history might obscure and distort your assumption on the present character and give you a wrong impression and make you miss the person right in front of you now. You come to understand the character by observing and experiencing the person in front of you now. That’s the most important thing. Every other information about the past that you get should be put in context with the present.
People say if you don’t know where a person is coming from you won’t understand the person. But it works both ways. For me, the present is more important. If I don’t experience, analyse, intuitively perceive and understand a person as they are now, I won’t know where they are coming from even if they tell me. Because information is not knowledge. Only experiencing and reflection, leading to recognition, is true knowledge of a person.
Knowing what I did in the past does not tell you who I am. At all. Believe me. Yes, it gives you clues, but some choices I make today will still baffle you. Because I have a free will. To really know who I am today, you have to experience and read me TODAY. Then you will also understand my past and perceive what my future might be.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
THE CHANGE
When you extend your hand long enough One day you pull it back. No human heart is strong enough To forever withstand rejection’s attack. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
CHANGING CLOTHES
People are like clothes Sometimes we change them Personalities are like clothes Sometimes we change them Consciousnesses are like clothes Sometimes we change them Places are like clothes Sometimes we change them Inwardly and outwardly For similar reasons And in between changing them We are naked. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
CHANGE LEADS
Change leads to more change Every trigger triggers another trigger When life wants to rearrange Your life and make it even bigger It uses sudden change and surprise Pain is an inconsequential by-product Or a tool, a school, but the real prize Is your next level waiting to be unlocked So embrace change that refuses To be refused and powers itself through And challenges you and confuses You and transforms you into a higher you. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
DEFLATION
It‘s a strange feeling when you stop caring; You look for it inside you, it’s no longer there. The heart grows cold and stops sharing, And lies overtake the spirit of truth or dare. It’s a strange feeling when you stop fearing To lose what you love the most to have near. What has freed you leaves you feeling empty; The answers are few, the questions are plenty; But the urge to know has suddenly died recently. - Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TIME WILL TELL
Time is such a strange thing. We always forget how long it is. One day you will change and you will look back and ask yourself Why. Why did I do that? Why did I not do that? Why did I say that? Why did I not say that? Why. Was it really worth it?
If it was, you will know and you will be happy. If it wasn’t, you will know and you will be sad.
But only time will tell you what your heart is still too blind or too stubborn or too immature to see today.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
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
