Douglas Browning: Poetry

Here are some poems of mine.  I will substitute a different poem every so often and without warning. Each poem included is copyrighted under my name, so any reproduction of it requires my permission (which is not necessarily very difficult to get).

THE PERFECT FLAW

Her witching is simplicity
oval face and olive skin
legs that speak iniquity
and promise sin.

Her green eyes are impossibly
drawn from depths of hidden seas
buttocks shift like mercury
in wanton ease.

Her lips inviting deviltry
pursed into a pouting ring
state with proud immodesty
their hungering.

Scarring marks her treachery
cutting pale upon her face
luring irresistibly
my tongue to trace.

Such scarring claims its victory
even so and that by law
passion craves deformity
the perfect flaw.

In the fantasy world of Ysstrhm the older poems are treasured. Though available in writing, they were created to be said and therefore they fall within the category of Traditional Sayings. Here are six to be found in the first three rather lengthy volumes of Ysstrhm entitled (tentatively) First Flight, First Quest, and Second Flight.

Untitled

I've had the run or most of it,
I've had my loves, I've wrung my time,
and still and all
I want, still want, to see it rhyme.

At times I've won a flair to knit
our twisted meters into line,
but still and all
it's incomplete if it won't rhyme.

Such lives I've done but time there's yet
for vines to curl, warm days to climb,
so, still and all,
perhaps, my love, we'll see it rhyme.

attributed to an unnamed poet of the Circle of the Emerald Cry, perhaps Sinis Pup
circa 270

 

Samli and Ytarr

Samli O Samli, be sweet with your treasures,
temptation for maidens to gift them with pleasures,
perfume for your wedded to bring you with child,
but Samli sweet Samli
a nook to keep hidden for him who is wild.

Ytarr O Ytarr, be kind with your passion,
deny not a maiden her oral obsession,
enrich every honeyed beauty that begs,
but Ytarr kind Ytarr
be wild for the woman who lures with her legs.

This poem, sometimes titled The Lovers, is credited to the woman poet Ux of the Circle of the Emerald Cry, circa 260.
 It is sometimes held that Samli was Ux's given name, since Ux is not an accepted female name, and that Ytarr was one of her many lovers. If this is correct, it suggests four interesting things about Ux: (i) she enjoyed sexual relations with women as well as with men, (ii) she had exceptionally bewitching legs, (iii) not only were all of her doors open for her love, but she considered deepdoor visitation to have special significance, though there is no suggestion that she felt it to be especially pleasurable, and (iv) she was married, though, apparently, not to Ytarr.
  Apparently, Ytarr addresses the first stanza to Samli, who replies to Ytarr in the second stanza In reciting this poem the two names are typically given uncharacteristic pronunciations, i.e., for Samli, sâm´li, and for Ytarr, ee´tahr.

 

Song Singing

A time ago and still
one not male not female
with long fingers reaching
and charms and tinkling
from the cave of dreaming
calls to everything
to capture and ensnare,

ah, it is the one
that is Song
not male not female
not kith not bird not animal
to trance us all to open
drawing us deep
into the cave of dreaming
to become its own
to become the singing
Song sang.

A cryptic poem (?), ancient,
origin unknown

 

The Song of Warm Waters

I dreamed you opened yourself to me
where the waters of the Winnow runs
and I, enveloped in your flesh,
became warm waters in your springs
gushing.

You touched my face with your finger tips
where the waters of the Winnow runs
and you, holding with your eyes my own,
became warm waters for my flood
trusting.

You held me into yourself and sighed
where the waters of the Winnow runs
and I, delicate as the rain,
became warm waters in your song
falling.

You whispered words within your eyes to me
where the waters of the Winnow runs
and you, anointed with our song,
became warm waters in my own
welling.

Attributed to an anonymous
Woman of the Blue Dance
circa 700

 

Ud's Lament

Ah Asathi, Asathi
you have danced between
my life and death
you have placed your sword between
my life and death
you have taken my wound
upon your belly
and forever failed
yourself of child
you have danced between
my life and death
your eyes upon mine.

Ah Asathi Asathi
you shall be complete
by my word be it done

that when you smile
the father shall forget his wife
and when you lightly laugh
forget his children and his place
to eat at your thighs

that every boy shall open his clothes
and you shall have him
and his parts
as you wish

that the barest touch of your eyes
shall tremble the knees
of each delicate girl
into water
that you may have them
and their parts
as you wish

Ah Asathi, my wound,
why do you smile
up at me
why do your eyes
take hold of me
why do you gaze on me
as though I were
the completion of which
you have been shorn

Ah Asathi my wound
and I shall make your bed
and stand beside it

Ah Asathi Asathi
I shall be beside your bed
forever.

Attributed to Ispriidran Anahondra
circa 270
Ud (ood) Asathi (ah-sah´ thih)

 

Women

I love my women, every one,
they ride my moons, they spin my sun,
they beckon me until they run
their course.
Granddaughters, daughters, wives of friends,
young and old, delights and sins,
loves I lose and loves I win
or worse.

I'll tell you this and then I'll quit,
there's always been a bit of it
that lured me to an intimate
design.
Enticers, chasers, lures in lace,
tame or wild, both worth and waste,
better yet the ones I taste
like wine.

attributed to Ispriidran Anahondra,
a poet of the Circle of the Emerald Cry,
circa 270

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