It's been a busy week since I vowed to record the next in the series 3 Poems and the decided the theme was ...to make you HORNY.
The idea of the series is simple. I audio record 3 poems. I write one and find two by established poets. Easy.
Well, not too easy as it turns out. The problem is the word HORNY. I would say, that is the comedy version of aroused. It's a word that captures the right combination of vulgarity and titillation for what I was after. It made me laugh when the idea struck (two balls in the picture, get it? Did you?) However, it turns out that doing a search for poetry that fits the bill is... tricky.
It appears that poets are divided on the subject. On one hand you have the distant voyeur type - poems dedicated to watching people and fantasasing about them. Basically erotica for bird watchers. Twitchers - how appropriate.
There's the kind of poetry Haynes might bring out in their range of car repair guides. Toyota Sienna - from 1998 to 2009, The Cliterous - from Eve to Wife. These are mostly to do with the physics involved in shagging and very little to arouse you. It's all about where the legs go. How testicles swing independantly and seldom match the music you planned on Spotify.
As for ancient erotic poetry - dear God! There are a lot of Chinese people so I guess I must be wrong but the Lotus does not get me going at all.
These poems leave you soiled - intellectually. Well, in every sense, really.
So I had to come out with my own definition. And the best way to do that was to write my a HORNY poem. Here it is - as Dennis would say to Margaret - brace yourself.
DID THEY
by ben keaton
Did she
Slow on the stairs to rise him
Did the clock hold as her buttons slipped
When his leather belt creaked
Did she need to glance at him
To smile
To slip her tongue between her lips
Did he trace her shoulder with his finger
For memory
Did he lift her, watch her breath escape,
Set her down and wait
To impress
When she held his head between her legs
Was she teaching
Or praising
When he didn’t come
When he stopped and looked deep into her
When her eyes said ‘no, no’
When she smiled and he smiled
When the thump of their hearts matched
And
When it was done
When he fell away
When they drank the air
And shivered in the cold
And pulled the covers close
And kissed
It was that kiss that made the journey That careless surrender kiss Leading nowhere, thoughtless Soft Forgotten Did they know Did they?
This result surprised me. The poem is more tender than I thought it would be. In the audio recording that I'll be posting, I have the advantage of being able to add a performance to give it some - yearning. That's the revelation.
Yearning is the key. It transforms the mechanicAL- into the sensual.
Yearning is the ache to touch, even though the act of touching isn't satisified by it. It can be delicious to want someone, to see them, to tease and be teased. You feel like that first touch will never come but it is soon followed by another and another and so it continues until we devour each other.
And then - it returns.
I did find two other poems to keep it company including Pablo Nerdua's wonderful Love Sonnet XI - they will be available shortly under the title 3 Poems to make you HORNY.
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