heart

WHERE THE HEART BELONGS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Someone who doesn’t take you with both hands, willingly and eagerly and totally, that person is not your home, nor you theirs. No matter how much it hurts, tear yourself away from them and move on.

Wounds heal with time.

We live in two worlds simultaneously. The one world is politics and society, is work and recreation, is projects and ambitions and all kinds of responsibilities, is ideologies, and is even family too sometimes. This is the one world, in which we chase achievements.

But there is another world in which we also live. It is deeper, is more subtle, more intense, quieter, and often very invisible. It is the loves that come and go; the tears and longings that burn our hearts; the seldom laughter of genuine joy; the raw friendships; the secret passionate love affairs; the intimately guarded happy home; the given trust and the broken trust; it is the real us deep inside.

We live in these two worlds simultaneously. And then time passes, and we die. And our obituary is full of what we did in the one world. While all our memories from the other world depart with us quietly in our hearts. And in the hearts of those who shared it with us.

Wounds will heal with time. But, while you’re on that journey, don’t go to where your heart does not belong. Seek your happiness in being true to yourself, always.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains

ONCE YOU TASTE TRUE LOVE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Once you taste true love
Lust becomes a mechanical chore
Pleasure is no longer enough
You want something more.

You learn to recognise the grain
And separate it from the chaff -
You want to feel that joy again
You want your heart to laugh.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

I DREAM EVERY TIME I FALL ASLEEP

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
I dream every time I fall asleep
And it’s always one adventure or the other;
Conversations with beloveds I keep,
My best friend, my father, my brother,
And strangers too with whom I laugh and weep
And fight and love and comfort one another;
The dangers are real, the emotions are deep,
Every fear, every tear, every worry and bother;
At times I weightless fly, or I burdened creep,
Through encounters that liberate or smother,
But I’m always conscious even in the Deep,
As awake as a baby born out of its mother.
For I have vows to keep and sowed seeds to reap -
And before it gets lighter it will get darker -
And miles to go and never really sleep.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE POWER IN THE COURAGE TO BE TRUTHFUL

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
Truth is so powerful. There is almost nothing
That you cannot forgive a truthful person.
It’s a strange phenomenon. What is hurting
You is healing you, is teaching you a lesson.
Even while suffering, you can’t stop trusting.

Something about them awakens respect in us.
Truthful people fascinate the coward in us,
Inspire the warrior in us, touch the human in us.
In the depth of their sin, yet they carry the cross.
Even at their worst, they’re still the best of us.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

BELIEVE YOUR HEART

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
Believe your heart,
It does not lie;
Let it be your chart
and your Why -

Why you believe or disbelieve a story;
Why in all things you give God the glory;
Why you wake up and get up
And dress up and show up
Morning after morning after morning
Like the sun always returning every morning.
Why you remember the sun and look up
And drink renewal from the Grail Cup.

Follow your heart,
no matter where it may roam -
It is like a magic chart
that knows the way home.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HURT

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
Love hurts.
Life hurts.
People hurt.
People hurt people.
And hurt people hurt people.

And when it hurts too much
People begin to avoid the touch
The inner touch
Sometimes they permit the outer touch
But only perfunctorily as such
Because even it hurts too much.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVE IS REAL

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Love is real
And rare
And it’s a big deal
In here
Where we feel
And care
And hurt and heal
And share.

To steal the heart
Is to seal the heart
And throw the key away
Forever minus a day.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVE HURTS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
If love hasn’t driven you mad
Then you’ve never felt love before
If love hasn’t made you unbearably sad
Then love has not yet pierced your core
If love hasn’t tested the line you had
Between the good and the bad
and fundamentally changed you forevermore,
Then yours isn’t love, just a lore.

And the most astounding part
Is the dull ache somewhere in your heart
and the cold ashes that remain
when you walk down memory lane.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

A HEART FULL OF MEMORIES

~ Che ~ 1 Comment 
We came we went
And the time spent
Was like a drop of memory
In a few people’s story
Who themselves are gone too
And, if not yet gone, are going too.
If you have a heart
Now is when to start
Keeping record in there
Of what you’re doing here
On this planet distant and blue -
Your memories are for you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

UNMISSING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
You stole my heart
But when you gave it back
It was no longer a part
Of the things that I lack.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river