Let You In

by Justine C. Tajonera

I have already let you in.
Pieces of you and pieces
of me
share the same spaces,
fill my mind with
useless mementos.

There is the jar of
candy that I gave you,
the cup of ice cream
that we both liked,
the spongy toy
you gave me
that makes me weep
or cringe
as it loiters
on my already crowded
desk.

I have already let you in.
There is no taking back
the time.

As much as I have
tried to purge
what little
there was,
I invited you in
at the beginning.

And that is where
you will stay.

No one ever told me
the rules
of the heart:

That there is no
diminishing,
that it can only
grow,
no matter
how painfully
it does.

June 29, 2010

Image of a heart sponge from http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomgruber/493465010/

The Stone

by Justine C. Tajonera

I don't know why
my heart gathers weight
and pulls me
downwards,
why no matter
how I try to
overturn
the stone
that is my
heart,
it only continues
to plunge
deeper.

Love makes it
no lighter.

I let myself find
the very bottom.
There is nowhere
else
for me.

I move slowly,
curling inwards,
into the nature
of the
stone,

feeling the edges,
the cracks,
the density
and weight
of me,

the substance
I am made of

the outcome of fire
and all the elements
coming
together,

I am
not going away,
dissipating into
the water,

I am of a rock,
what is left
that is
unbroken.

(April 19, 2010)
 Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/16956768@N00/3214141415

Listening In the Heart of Silence

by Justine C. Tajonera

I have been hungry for tranquility
for some time,
searching in the noise, in the crowd,
wondering sometimes
why I cannot move away
from the traps
around my feet.

When I sit for a few moments
in meditation,
I begin to see the many illusions
around me:
time, success, material
things, obligation,
stress.

I have never really listened
before.
I have always talked,
requested, demanded,
shared, pined,
questioned.

But I have never really
listened.

And the listening is
difficult,
elusive, strained.
The listening is full of
my own voice
asking, wondering,
talking.

But there has been
a clearing
sometimes,
a fountain of light
and love

and the answer
that my mind
can never
comprehend.

The answer is
the music
and the silence
and being
in the heart
of it.

(Feb. 12, 2010)
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/_brilho-de-conta/344394465/