THE POWER IN THE COURAGE TO BE TRUTHFUL

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

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

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.