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
EXPERIENCING
TIME OF OUR LIVES
I wish there were two of me – and both would go out in the morning on different paths of experiencing and fulfillment, to cover all I have to cover. And in the evening they would come back again and unite in one person, myself, not doubly rich in experiencing, but just fully rich.
I sometimes wish the two sides of me could divide and live two different lives, and then unite again at the end. The linear experiencing of time and limited experiencing of space are the best spur to make the most of every moment, every second, every thought, every intuition. Because one person one life… is just not enough.
Our vanity projects end up eating up most of our time. Superficiality. Once is not enough, even twice is not enough. The many lives we should give to our Striving, we sell to our Vanity for nothing. And then you are here, trapped in one experience, and wishing you could divide yourself into three or more; and send out your volition, cloaked multiple times as you, to go and attend to all the other fires which, deep within your heart, you know are still burning in other aspects of your life.
Who is ever finished at the end when he or she has to go? Hardly anybody. Precious Moment, open up and link me always to the underground stream of my true destiny. Whatever I seek and whatever I do, may I the spirit be truly finished and fulfilled by the time I‘m done and gone.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
OPEN FOR RECEPTION
The central characteristic of wisdom is that you don’t have it when you need it the most – and that’s how and why you acquire it.
Wisdom is a tree. In the drought of ignorance it slowly and painfully begins to grow. By the time it matures, whatever it was that triggered its growth is usually already over. Thus, wisdom is usually in the possession of those who don’t need it any longer; but they can’t transfer it to those who need it but who do not know that they need it. They too will acquire it when their time is up.
Wisdom’s face, indeed, is cast in irony. Wise is the one who takes this recognition along into the next life and into the next set of experiences.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
UNCONVENTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Human characters incarnate
And re-incarnate.
Each stay on another Earth is but
A continuation.
It is limited by time and
Saturated by responsibility.
There is a task…
– this is the objective happening,
always to be borne in mind.
The key to fulfilment is Love,
Always to be borne in Heart.
You running and you running and you running away,
Sang Mr. Bob Marley
But you can’t run away from yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
SENSE OF TASTE
There is no easy way
To walk through every valley
Without tasting any fruit
Without tasting any fruit
Propensity plays a gentle lute
Curiousity owns a magic flute
Temptation gnaws at your root
Intuition is loud, intuition is mute.
Who can know without taking a bite?
Who can grow without experiencing the night?
Some nights will yield the day
Some nights will kill the day
When does a want become a need?
When does a hunger morph into greed?
Is a sin a fruit or a seed?
A thought is sometimes worse than a deed.
There is a green hill far away
Your feet are confused: to go or to stay?
Who can walk through the valley of the root
Without tasting any fruit?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WEB OF TOO MANY WORDS
Left Simpli City
Travelled to Dupli City
Influenced by someone from Compli city.
So what’s the name of the whole country?
The Queen of Compli City
Was bored. She disguised as a lost maiden
And went to the King of Simpli City
Who fell in love with her.
She sweet-talked and brainwashed him
And he rode into Dupli City
To challenge the King of Dupli City
To a conflict of interests.
So, looks like Compli city
Was trying to use Simpli City
To defeat Dupli City
After having first compromised Simpli City.
How smart.
But of course the King of Dupli City
Saw through all this
And decided to play along.
Pretending to ride into battle
Against the army of Simpli City
In the full view of Compli City
Secretly he sends messages to Simpli City
Poor Simpli City, as it falls
Lost in the web of too many words
Not knowing whom to believe now
Compli City or Dupli City.
But underneath the ruins of Simpli city
Lies the ancient foundation of Tena City
Where a Child is born who says my name
Is different, my name is Clarity.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
LIFE’S QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Some questions are young
Saplings lost in a world of mystery
Too soon despairing and coming to the conclusion
That some questions have no answers
Some answers are old
You have to journey the whole length to grasp them
From the mountain-top of distant insight
They watch the questions growing in the valley
Child, when I tell you you won’t understand
’Tis not folly on my part, seeing that you don’t understand
I say it to you not so that you’ll believe, accept or understand
But so that when it’s your turn you will remember
Remember that I told you that the answers come late
So despair not, thinking you’ve lived in vain
Despair not, ’tis the nature of life
To answer tomorrow the questions it posed yesterday
Today is its gift to you
That you may wander and seek by yourself
And wonder, and marvel, and err, lose, learn, and grow
And fear, and fight, and love, laugh, and live, and find and become yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 