Is time a circle, not a line? Does it have a center? A Center to which we return When we lose our Center? A moment in our childhood, A time from another life, Something that never changes, A piece of eternal life. A recurring dejavu - I have been here before And so have you Like Waves on the sea shore. The seasons recur for a reason The past repeats itself intermittently We come from the Future And it is waiting for us to return impatiently. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
time
DON’T WASTE TIME
I don‘t waste time. There is no wasted second Or minute or hour in my day. A day with me Is a month with many others Every moment counts everyday. Every thought, word, Every action, emotion, every intuition Everything has a role to play Everybody I meet Has something to return to me Or is someone I must rightly repay. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
GIVING TIME AND SPACE
When someone asks for time and space
Give it to them
They are not necessarily running away from you
They might really just need time and space
To come to terms with the fact of you.
And if they are running away from you
Then there’s no need to want them close to you.
It’s not an insult or an attack
It’s just a chance to find true happiness for both of you
Each in their own way, own time and own space.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
READY OR NOT
By the time you’re ready for me I’ll be ready for me too I’ll no longer need you to Complete me and hold steady for me. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TIME IS TOO LONG SOMETIMES
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
TIME MATTERS
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
TIME DOES NOT CHANGE THINGS
Time doesn’t change things, they stay as they are. Events change things. Experiences change things. Things change things. Not time. Time only changes the outer appearance of the form of things.
Sometimes a thing that seems like it will last forever only lasts a short time and then changes, because the thing or event that will change it met it early.
While sometimes an other thing that seems flimsy and ephemeral stays unchanged for eternities, because the thing or experience that will change it has not yet met it.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
THE POND
Your voice is in my heart
Although we’re farther apart
Than a mind can see, can scan,
Hearts with ease infinity will span
Between Earthlives and Beyond
Across universes spirits bond
Like lily leaves on a little pond.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
PRESENT BE
The present always becomes the distant past. When Martin Luther put up the 95 theses, that was for him in the present. For us today it is the distant past. When Judas betrayed Jesus, for him that was the present; for us today it is in the distant past. When the artisans at Igbo-Ukwu or in Nok made their bronzes, that was for them the present, the most modern moment they knew. They could have never guessed what the future would be. But for us today, their present is the distant distant past.
Even such is time.
Today will one day be the past, the distant past, and be forgotten. Another day will be the present. Everyday another day. Only the present matters. The present is the only thing that Really IS.
Live in the present, from day to day.
Move with the present, from day today.
BE the present, every day.
Be present in every moment.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
THE MISSES I’LL REGRET
Very soon I might have to drop
Half of the things I’m into
In order to find enough time
To do the things I really mean to
The years fly past on fast forward
And everyday I feed the beasts that are eating me
Sometimes I need to stop, check and be sure
If it’s angels or demons that are leading me
Politics and society, belief, love and money
The five names of the very same monster
How long can Reincarnation remain on Auto-repeat
Futilely yelling I came, I saw, I conquered?
So give me that filter, I’ll separate
The misses I’ll regret from all the rest
Even as I wonder if it’s already too late
Before Death comes to pass the test.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 