In the Fifth Chamber Lies the Hour’s End
To fairly allocate irrigation resources, the Persians measured time with water,
sinking a bowl in a larger vessel and tallying the count with pebbles.
And what is time but counting, determining the number of units within a set?
The sum of beats between silences and their diminishing echoes?
Its symbol in the West grew from fig and ivy leaves, while early medical
illustrations depicted pine cone-shaped organs.
In most reptilians, the aorta receives only oxygenated blood.
Qanats pump by gravity. The hagfish’s second resides in its tail.
Recognize the empty as full. Squeezed shut, we open.
Contraction and flow, ejection, inflow, relaxation.
Emotion as electrical impulse. Murmuring valves. The color red.
The fifth chamber remains silent and undetected.
The primitive fish’s chambers are arranged sequentially, but in an S-shape.
Ancients believed arteries transported air through the body.
The Buddhist figure, too, originated in leaves, symbolizing not love
but enlightenment. The ache of failure confounds us.
🙂 That’s beautiful. It both sinks like a heart rejected, and flies like an arrow released.
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Thank you, Mils.
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This should come with a warning. That multiple reads are mandatory and it will leave you with thoughts you can’t shake. I love this, Bob. So the 5th chamber is where the aches reside?
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It could be. The 5th chamber is whatever you make of it. Or not. 🙂
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fascinating , and the photo is just stunning !
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Thanks, Raili. Sometimes I indulge myself. 🙂 The photos are from morguefile.com.
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Blown away! Agree with 1000horsleft, multiple readings required.
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Thank you, Angela, as always.
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I agree with the need for multiple reads. It’s complex, but lovely. Actually, no buts, it — it’s complex AND lovely.
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I’m so pleased you find it so, Tami. Thank you!
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I felt it and I like it 🙂
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I’m glad you felt it. Thank you.
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I’ve always equated the way time confounds me (always has, always will…) with failure. But it is good to be reminded that time is not my construct, and thus my inability to pour myself into time like water into a bucket is anything but unnatural. ❤
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Oh, how I know that feeling. I occasionally escape it, but have come to accept that my conflict with time is not necessarily a bad thing. I hope.
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This required multiple readings; with each reading, I found something new and more beautiful than the last. I love it! Thank you! ❤
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You are so kind, J. Thank you!
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What the world needs is more people like you. I see door upon door inside this poem, each opening to new chambers of understanding. The Fifth Chamber remains somewhere, beckoning. Thanks for sharing this. You are so popular – deservedly – I sometimes wonder if posting comments or likes would burden you. But in this case I cannot help myself!
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Comments and likes are always welcome and never a burden. I have so few ways of gauging whether anyone reads my posts, and am truly grateful when readers take time out of their busy days to comment. That’s truly a gift. And thank you for your generous remarks.
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That is simply brilliant! As my middle son begin exploring his love of poetry, I am definitely going to send him here. He will learn a lot sitting at your feet.
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Thank you, Tanya. I’m grateful that you feel that way.
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Fascinating. Thought provoking. Sally
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Thank you, Sally.
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WOWZA! And that final line…I feel it, and am further speechless.
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Glad you feel it, Stella. Thank you.
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Welcome
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This is masterful.
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I was uncertain about it. It had been languishing in a folder for three years when I decided to post it. So pleased you like it.
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Really?!? The opening lines recall “Citta Invisibile”, and the second half comes across as the words of a mystic. Perhaps St. John of the Cross. You’re work is always good, but this one is special.
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It was one of those pieces – too much? not enough? In the end, after letting it marinate for three years, I changed only three words.
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I agree that this poem requires multiple reads, reminding me that Scottish poet Kenneth White’s poems often do as well, leaving me going back over a poem multiple times before, “Voila!” I get, see and feel it. I’ll keep this one with me and give it that kind of a read . Thanks for sharing it.
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I’m pleased you feel it’s worth the time, George! Thank you.
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Nothing works both sides of my brain quite like your poems, RO; just love this one.
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Writing them does the same to me, SJ. 🙂 Thank you!
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Nice blend of anatomy, emotions and poetry
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Thanks very much.
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So much wonderful imagery! After reading the poem a few times somehow I feel at peace with the confines of time and the timelessness of Life’s Mysteries . . . at least for the moment.
Several years ago a friend shared with me her belief that a soul determines before incarnating the number of heart beats its body will experience on earth . . .. hmmm I thought, maybe I shouldn’t use up my beats with aerobic exercise.
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Some things are more worth expending beats on than others, that’s for sure…
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We have our priorities!
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Well said!
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That peaceful feeling never seems to last… And I have to agree – no use speeding up the process. 🙂
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