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LOVERS AND TRUTH

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Lovers, you have to tell yourselves the truth. The only thing that may unite or separate you is the truth. The only thing that should keep you together or tear you apart is the truth. The only thing that can really merge or divide you is the truth. Truth is a function of love and love is a function of truth. You cannot separate them one from the other because the aim of love is to give you freedom but, as we know, only the truth can set you free.

If you love something, set it free – if it comes back to you, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. If you love something, tell it the truth – if it stays with you, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. If something claims that it loves you, ask it the truth – if it tells you the truth, it is yours; if it doesn’t, it never was. Truth is the ultimate determiner of love.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

ONE LOOK

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
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

A QUIET LIFE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
A quiet life
You come and you go
And barely anyone noticed
You or your halo.

This distant planet
The Earth she’s called
You visited and then were
Quietly recalled.

Some people don’t talk much
You don’t even know they’re there
But their hearts are deep
And full of care.

But their hearts are deep
And full of care
Treasure the quiet ones
While they’re still here.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NON-MATERIAL THINGS

~ Che

How frail the body
How it ages
And falls to sickness prey
And life is as a day…

If you send me pictures and reports
Of you enjoying material things
And hope to thereby impress me
Or make me envious
Would you still have the depth of perception to understand
That I pity you?

Send me a greeting to say
How are you? I wish you well…
Then will I see therein your Height
Like an arrow to the heart
That humbles and heals my Spirit.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MUSICIANS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

When the sadness
Coloured the smile
Of the musician’s sunshine
I saw that his joy
Had just got deeper
And the unshed tears
Longing in his eyes
Were less bitter
Than they were bittersweet
To my ears
Music to my heart
Water to my soul – his sorrow
Became the joy of my spirit flame.
That was when I saw him smile
That broke my heart.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

NEED

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

One land’s poor man
Is another land’s rich man
It’s all relative
How many meals do you need to be hungry?

One school’s teacher
Is another school’s student
It’s all relative
How much knowledge do you need to be ignorant?

One court’s free man
Is another court’s prisoner
It’s all relative
How many laws do you need to have injustice?

One era’s inventor
Is another era’s copycat
It’s all relative
One religion’s wise man
Is another religion’s fool
It’s all relative
One heart’s sorrow
Is another heart’s happiness
It’s all relative
One man’s woman
Is another woman’s man
It’s all relative
One nation’s outcast
Is another nation’s promised helper.

It all depends
On what you need
Some want the flesh of the fruit
Some crave its inner seed.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MY POETRY BENCH

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

There is a graveyard thence
With benches placed all over
Where people come a-steady
To ponder life and death

There is a certain bench
Apart from every other
Where I sit when poetry
Takes clean away my breath.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FIFTH DIMENSION

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I’m not talking
To the part of you you can control
With your thinking
Switch off and on in your soul

Two conversations run parallel
Unaware of one another
Just like politics debates but can’t foretell
Human laws of spirit and nature

Bend my mind and bend me back
When you leave, leave your truth behind
Worlds and worlds and worlds of meaning
That nourish slowly my mind.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SCANDALOUS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

It is love.

You cannot
Mathematize it.

It will
Mesmerize
Scandalize
Legalize
Illegalize

And always leave Questions
Behind.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

AND YOU SHALL FIND

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Nothing that comes, unspoiled
From the spirit
Is empty

It might take people two decades
Or two centuries
Or two millennia to understand it
But they will

Because, like an immortal light
The deeper the darkness
The brighter the flame
Until, one day
People take notice, stop, and ask…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.