Good liars are used To being believed So they get confused, Irritated, aggrieved, When they meet someone By whom their well-conceived Lies, deception and con Are not well-received; Someone who sees through them deeply, Like a radar, stubbornly and unerringly, And refuses to be bought by them cheaply, But demands the real them unsparingly. The real them, the higher You, The deeper fruit of your true history - Be brave with me, trust me, be true. Let that be our bond, and our mystery. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
truth
SPEAK YOUR MIND
You need to speak your mind Or you will not be free It will eat you up inside and grind Away at your sanity. Say what you really believe Articulate what you really want Your Inner piece shall grant you reprieve When people’s reaction be blunt. Truth is better than art Honesty shines brighter than beauty Your inner voice wants to chart A path to peace of mind and to Liberty. Speak your mind before you die. If your heart moves your mind spiritually Speak your mind unless you’ll die Literally and figuratively. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TRUTH IS FOR THE BLIND
Only the blind can speak the truth Caring not where it lands Seeing not where it opens wounds Even in one’s Beloved’s own hands Only the blind can follow the truth Minding not where it leads Seeing not that an abyss sometimes looms For people, like themself, of honest deeds Only the blind can bear the truth Unbothered by its origin Seeing not the size of the mountain it moves Or the people and things it’s crushing Only the blind can see the truth No matter how bright and blinding its light For the truth-loving heart is forever full Of bold and unfailing insight. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
TRAVELLER TRUTHS
The Truth can only be found By those who are seeking it A mistake can only be learned from By those who are making it Full exposure is only feared By those who are faking it A road can only be understood By those who are taking it The Truth can only be echoed By those who are speaking it. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
EASTER
Tear the woods open wide It is a painting windowed in our dream Spear not the canvas to the side The blood waters a never-ending stream That will move mountains on Sunday And roll a rock downhill Into the valley of time we chime Monday Death is dead. Peace, be still The innocent should never be crucified While the guilty die on their pen Never was indignity this undignified Justice thus unjustified by unmanly men The innocent will rise again Broken the frame of your crown of lies Sunrays that fall like drops of rain A Spirit is born when a man dies. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
QUOTES ON LIES, ERRORS AND TRUTH
“Mother always told me: If you tell a lie, always rehearse it. If it doesn’t sound good to you, it won’t sound good to no-one else.”
– Leroy Robert ‘Satchel’ Paige
“When one has one’s hand full of truth, it is not always wise to open it.”
– French proverb
“Tell your friend a lie. If he keeps it secret, then tell him the truth.”
– African proverb
“Nothing hurts a new truth more than an old error.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Nothing does Reason more right than the coolness of those that offer it. For truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.”
– William Penn
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
– Mark Twain
“Truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
– William Blake
“The worst you can do to truth is to cloth it in lies – you can never undo it anymore.”
– African proverb
“Follow not truth too near the heels, lest it dash out thy teeth.”
-George Herbert
“I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.”
– Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth; but most times he will pick himself up and continue on.”
– Sir Winston Churchill
“My way of joking is to tell the truth.
That’s the funniest joke of all.”
– Muhammad Ali
“Art is a lie which makes us realize the truth.”
– Pablo Picasso
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to suppress dissent; for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie. And thus, by extension: the Truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
– Joseph Goebbels (Propaganda Minister, Third Reich)
“Often times, to win us to our harm
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.”
– William Shakespear (Macbeth)
“When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.”
– Arabian proverb
“Tell the truth but tell it slant
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind.”
– Emily Dickinson
“There is no story that is not true. Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.”
– Chinua Achebe
“What is truth?”
– Pontius Pilate
“The greatest truth is the simplest one.”
– African proverb
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IS HELL THE WAY TO HEAVEN?
Never gonna teach nobody
Never gonna preach the Word
To no damn soul
I’m damned myself
Tired of pretending
To know the way to heaven
Maybe everybody should just
Go to hell – then we’ll all grasp
The way to heaven.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
NATURE OR PROPENSITY
For people who, by nature, are partner-faithful and relationship-loyal (I’m talking Sex here), there exists in their inside a great big Why when they observe how a person who they know really loves his/her partner with all his/her heart can have a sexual interchange with a third party – one time, or for a shorter or longer period, or intermittently – and yet remain totally committed to and in love with their chosen “permanent” partner. Is it a predisposition or a weakness?
It’s like a puzzle, a mystery that defies solution.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
FAMILY
Is it those that smile at you
Or those that frown at you?
Is it those with the same blood
flowing through their veins
Or those with the same thoughts
springing from their hearts?
Is it those who want nothing from you
even when they’re there
Or those who always want something from you
even when they’re not there?
Is it really a bound tree
With invisible tangled-up roots?
Or is it an open sea
Rolling freely in all directions?
Does the departed soul really stop and turn back
Or does it hurry away into another life?
Are all those who call themselves family
There to bind or to free each other?
Is protection sometimes limitation?
Is liberation sometimes abandonment?
Is a kiss sometimes an embracing of betrayal?
Is severity sometimes an anchorage of love?
Only the sincere should read your inner book.
Only the sincere should read your inner book.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
AGAIN
The punishment for being brave
Is having nothing to do
But be brave –
A tidal wave is rising in my soul.
The reward for being brave
Is having to do nothing
But be brave –
A tidal wave is crashing in my soul.
She warmed her cold tongue with
The flaming words of a passionate poet and
Lashed a gutter of decadent lava on
My soul.
Yet I told her still the truth
Again and again and again
And again and again, again
And again.
– che chidi chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 