You know, when you do not Want to stop missing a person, but… One morning you rise and go through the day and only In the evening do you realise That today you forgot to be lonely And in that moment when you remember That person, you wait for the familiar pain… But as sure as August breaks into September The ache is gone, you’ll never feel it again. You know, when you do Not Want to stop missing a person… Because missing that person Is the only thing you’ve still got - But… One day even that leaves you too. Yes, even you. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
change
TIME MATTERS
If there were no time There would be no pleasure For there would be no experiencing, No piling up of inner treasure, No maturing, no developing, No struggle against which to measure Growth, delicious, ever unfolding, For eternity gained is the time spent. If there were no time, If Everything happened in one moment, There would be no rhyme. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
CHANGE CHANGES CHANGE
There is something about change Once it starts, it is irreversible The inexorable march is strange Like a Divine verdict incontestable You see it happening yet you cannot stop it When you try to stop it you only develop it Even faster and make yourself expendable. There is something about change It is is surreal. Unreal. It is strange. Change changes the parameters of change And never changes in the same way. Change changes change But never changes it in the same way. And never stops changing. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TIME DOES NOT CHANGE THINGS
Time doesn’t change things, they stay as they are. Events change things. Experiences change things. Things change things. Not time. Time only changes the outer appearance of the form of things.
Sometimes a thing that seems like it will last forever only lasts a short time and then changes, because the thing or event that will change it met it early.
While sometimes an other thing that seems flimsy and ephemeral stays unchanged for eternities, because the thing or experience that will change it has not yet met it.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SURREPTITIOUSLY
Things change so suddenly,
Or so slowly, it’s hard to tell the difference.
In quiet times, surreptitiously,
Change things which survived turbulence.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
THE STRANGE CHANGE
When the person you knew disappears and is no more than memories and pictures and daily through the door a stranger now in and out walks while in the old voice of before this stranger also with you talks welcome to disorientation shore. People really change, it is no myth - Experience totally today the person you’re now with - No human truly stays a monolith. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
PERFECTION IS FOR THE COWARDLY
Perfection is for the cowardly Perfection is for the vain Perfection is for the insecure Afraid of the rugged terrain Perfection is for the talentless Unable to handle the unknown Perfection is for the clueless For the lazy follower, the drone Give me imperfection at dawn The origin of the day and the way Give me imperfection at dusk The source of tomorrow’s dream. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
NEW EVERY MORNING
Every day, like a mother,
delivers a new version of me
No matter what binds me today,
tomorrow I will be free.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
ONCE WE WERE LIGHT
Once we were light
But the world weighed us down
Drowned out our cry of resistance
And put a bandage over our eyes
A desperate cry for help
Before we fell silent
And started to look silently at our children
The way once our parents looked at us
Now we know what they were thinking:
Retain your magic! Retain your lightness!
Even as they said to us worriedly:
You have to learn to fit into the system –
Knowing it was not the way
But knowing no other way
Or knowing it but not having the heart
To push us off the cliff –
Because not everybody grows wings
When falling through the gap.
The generation gap.
Now we watch our children worriedly
Wanting them to become like us
And wanting them to stay themselves too.
Once we were light
But the world weighed us down.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
RELAY
If every new generation
Rose up twice as high as the one before,
Humanity‘s elevation
Would see us soon knocking on heaven‘s door.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
