self

BE WHO YOU ARE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

It does not matter who your father is,
Or was. It only matters who you are;
Throw off the reputational burden of his
Life, whether a nobody, a crook or a star.

It does not matter who your mother is,
Was, or will be. You have your own destiny.
Be firm in rejecting her spirit’s liabilities,
Nor bask in her glory. Write your own story.

Never ever allow family to be your bondage.
If wealth is not health, detach and go higher.
The chains of name, blood, and heritage
Are human assumptions, not God’s desire.

God wants each unique creature to be true,
So experience and enrich the world as You.
Free your children too from the Obligation to
Follow, serve, help, complete or redeem you.

If your story happens to be your family’s too,
Then so be it, that’s who you genuinely are.
But if your story is totally different and new,
Don’t feel guilty; accept and be who you are.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE JOURNEY OF YOUR “I”

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
The miracle of life transcends the earth.
The adventures of the “I”
Survive many an earthly death and rebirth
And a “Beyond” not in the Sky
But right here beside you
And much too often beneath you.
Your Journey is shaping the Real you.

This is really the purpose of it all -
Not the Earthly but the Spiritual,
the true inner personality,
you the actual person, you, you, you!
Eternity requires integrity,
and self-conquest is our path thereto
in the struggle with the Material.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE BOUNDARY OF SELF

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
It‘s Hard to escape the gravity of the Earth
It’s Hard to outgrow the culture of your birth
It’s Hard for the tide to exceed its continental shelf
It’s Hard to see beyond the boundary of yourself.

The more you see, the more you see you
The farther you go, the farther YOU go
The more you do, the more you do you
You reap You because that’s what you sow

It’s Impossible to get from a thing more than it’s worth
It’s Impossible to go further north than the north
It’s Impossible for the earthly eye to see an Elf
It’s Impossible to grasp beyond the boundary of yourself

The more you overcome you the more you become you
Until in the end you are all you know
The more you wander, the more you understand you
Because in the end you are all you really can ever know.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

SELF-MADE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
At the end I‘ll be happy with myself
For healing myself by denying myself.
This is the mystery of the Self
That liberates itself by controlling itself
And binds itself by indulging itself,
Because whatever becomes of yourself
You did it to yourself.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE RIVER OF REFLECTION

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

If one day you see yourself
On the other side of the river
And yourself tells himself
To move on and forgive her

And yourself turns around
And walks into the distance
And you’re left with the sound
Of the inner river’s dance

Will you follow your inner self
Across the river of reflection?
Or will you follow your inner self
In the opposite direction?

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

TOLERANCE FOR THE SAKE OF COMPLEMENTARITY

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Human society needs a healthy mix of capitalism and socialism. Too much of either one has always proven to be bad.

Human society needs a healthy mix of faith and doubt. Too much of either one has always proven to be bad.

The world needs a healthy balance between “I” and “we”. Too much of either one has always proven to be bad.

We divide ourselves into “left” and “right”; and then we forget that left and right are the two legs on which that which is Human walks, balanced. They are not adversaries of one another; they are complementary to one another. Each must tolerate the other, for the sake of all.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

POWER

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

All power belongs to God, and only to God. If power is given to you, then you are just temporarily a vessel through which power in part will seek to fulfil the Will of God.

If you try to wield power and to bend it to your own will, and use it solely in service of your own ego and volition, then it will turn against you and destroy you, even if this destruction only becomes obvious to you after you have left this earth and it is too late to stop or reverse your self-destruction via power.

This is the worst kind of destruction, the one that becomes visible only after you have left the earth. You will have to come again as a baby and live a new life, to attempt to painfully undo the errors of the former.

Power is a very strange thing. It is not what you think it is. It is not what you see or think that you are seeing. What you see as power, no matter how obvious or subtle it may be, is just a temporary vessel through which power seeks to fulfil the Will of God. For all power belongs to God.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

PROGRESS

~ Che

When you ride the western star until you hit its heavenly glass ceiling, are unable to break through it, and then console yourself with the thought that, at least, you have done better for yourself than those who once started off with you back home in the deep global south… the question is: has Progress really been made?

You rise in the West
But Africa stays the worst.

If you shine moderately in the glow of the eastern star, but your own land of the rising sun is still struggling with twilight…

If like a lost moon you reflect dazzlingly the northern lights and it blinds you to your own northern people’s plight and they desert-roam in darkness and have no light…

If you drown power-drunk in the global financial waters, but your own lagoons are not overflowing with milk and honey, and your people thirst out of lack…

Has Progress really been made?

West, east, north, global are not necessarily far away places. They are the System and the way of life that rule and school you also at home, and force you to make a choice.

It’s easy to rise as a stranger.
It’s hard to rise as yourself.

As a stranger you just have to pretend and act the part and they’ll let you through and put you in a place that’s safe for them.

But as yourself you have to persevere; and refuse to compromise if it won’t help your People; and be content to inch your way forward, little by little, you and your world.

It might be slow, it might be painful, but that is true Progress.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SPREAD MY WINGS

~ Che

When they tempt me
I won’t lie

When they hurt me
I won’t cry

When they free me
I won’t fly

And when they kill me
I won’t die

But will simply continue with my roam
Until I see what of my dream has become
And then I will smile, spread my wings and fly away home.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE ULTIMATE VOW

~ Che

You made me a thousand promises
And heartlessly broke them all
But the Moment I will know the greatest sorrow
Is when you break that one vow
Which you solemnly made to yourself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije