The human heart is an intricate marvel that stokes and maintains the fires of our very existence.  It does all of this within four chambers.  But what of all that keeps us connected, engaged, and married to all else?  Is it possible that there exists, within the heart, a powerful, albeit small and hidden fifth chamber where all the most wondrous aspects of being human repose?

I have often wondered where do all of the intangible needs and expressions of the soul reside- the images and sounds of loved ones who cosseted and molded us; those who serendipitously came into our lives, touched us ever so briefly, yet profoundly, then disappeared into life’s mist.  And what of all the eloquent and profound words we either heard or read that we ultimately embraced as worthy credos to live by?

One may ask, “Where do the murmurings of our soul reside, the mysterious whisperings of intuition, the divine rhythms of our primordial world, the refrains of our deepest loves, the beloved echoes of those lost to us, and our need to hear them again along with those nostalgic sounds that refuse to let go?”

Some will answer that all of these functions of the brain, the mind, the memory; but what causes some to persist and return, uninvited again and again, while others are consigned to oblivion?

Perhaps there is a fifth chamber of the heart, after all, that graciously accepts and stores what we treasure most--such as the beauty we see but cannot describe with words; the the ideals we know and reach for, hoping to attain, the superlatives in life, all those emotions that express the elation of our happiest moments as well as those that sink our soul  into the greatest depths of sorrow, remorse, or despair.  Perhaps it is all here, stored along with that singular feeling of quiet awareness that we have lived a life of quiet nobility and meaningful worth.

I ponder all of this and hope that, along the way, I have made some choices of enduring value that are worthy of being valued remembered and passed on through my poetry to those who come after me.  I pray that I have been able to to articulate my love and have shown it to all who have come into my life, for it is only then that I can come to believ that the better part of me can live forever.  There is no other place like this one-- the fifth chamber-- the eternal place of the heat, where the songs of the heart are stored and sung. Could one not also conclude that it is this mystical chamber that also houses the soul?  Is that not worth pondering?

                                                                                    ~Margaret J. Geckos

                                                                                     Author’s Note from

                                                                                    Songs from the Fifth Chamber