show yourself

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

TIME IS TOO LONG SOMETIMES

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
You have to wait a little while to really
Get to know people’s character truly
If you let them unfold themselves freely
Around you they will unravel duly -
Yes, they will start with a façade first ideally
But the heart, the heart, the heart is unruly
It will break rank and show itself verily
Eventually, for patience grinds masks cruelly
To submission. Truth emerges voluntarily.
Not every friend is a friend
Not every enemy is an enemy
But sometimes you have to wait till the end
To recognise each person clearly.
Unfortunately by then it might be too late
To correct what happened at the gate.
You let the wrong person in
And kept the wrong person out -
O voice within, o voice within, o voice within,
Help me to accurately check people out.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment 
Hiding in plain sight
If you don’t want people to know you
Let them think they already know you
If you don’t want people to see you
Show them daily the you that is not you
They will be looking at you
But they will not see you

Conversely
You might be lonely
For the like-minded will be blindsided by you
And will not see you to connect with you
And what you do, they won’t know you’ve done
And when you go, they won’t know you’re gone
And when you die, nobody will miss you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE VOICELESS DARK

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Don’t allow them to reduce you
To the picture they have of you
In the picture they have of themselves

Be proud of who you are
What you are, how you are
It is what the world needs

Stay. In your element, stay.
Be proud of who you are
But define it for yourself by yourself

Don’t be the canvas on whose back
They paint and admire themselves
And cover you up in the voiceless dark.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.