c

The
BARREN
PLAIN
Poetry Exploring the Reality
of the Modern Wasteland

L.M. BROWNING
Author of Oak Wise: Poetry Exploring an Ecological Faith
and Ruminations at Twilight: Poetry Exploring the Sacred
 Praise for Oak Wise

“Browning’s poems are of exquisite quality. Like all excellent poetry, no

modifier, no imagery, no reference is gratuitous. Ms Browning’s literary back-
ground is not only impressive, it is esthetically set to reinforce and construct a
world of rich imagery. This work, is a serious expression with a precise goal and
a dexterous poetic sense of architecture. There is a philosophical peace that over-
lays even the passages of questioning and unease in the writer’s mind. The author
takes us to a beautiful lyrical place that she has found and uses her talent as a poet
to entice us.”
—Jean-Yves Vincent Solinga, Ph.D
Author of: In the Shade of a Flower and Clair-Obscur of the Soul

“In societies that still bear an imprint of ‘the shamanic’, male and female
shamans are a voice of the sacred. In these worlds, from bardic Ireland to the
crazy wisdom ngakpas of the Himalayas, poetry is a facet of the shamanic tradi-
tion. The work of L.M. Browning is undoubtedly one of these wisdom-streams.
Her sight, voice and verses are a force of nature, simultaneously reminding us
what we’ve forgotten and foretelling what we must remember to survive.”
—Frank Owen Author/Creator of
the online poetry experience NEKYIA.POETRY

Praise for Ruminations at Twilight

“Ruminations at Twilight is a powerful cry of yearning for the sacred.

These lines of poetry are Browning’s fearless entry into the global conversation;
a heartfelt plea on behalf of the sacred Earth whose words run like rivers into
the Great Watershed of the Earth’s dreaming. May her poetry inspire your own
plunge into the currents.”
—Jason Kirkey, Author of The Salmon in the Spring
(*Winner of the 2010 IPPY Book Award’s Silver Medal)

“A few months back I had L.M. Browning’s Oak Wise to review, and I ap-
preciated that collection. This volume quite simply blew me away. It follows the
same themes of relationship with nature, and speaking to spirit, and there are mo-
ments that feel like prayer. The writing is beautiful, but in Ruminations, Browning
has gained a sense of purpose and direction absent in the earlier work. There’s
recognition of where the wrongs lie, and how to challenge them. I found the poetry
affecting and inspiring, underpinned with a strong philosophy. This is not just a
poetry book, it is a call to action, to self awareness and engagement with spirit.”
—Bryn Colvin [Druid Network]
 “L.M. Browning’s religious fervor reminds one of Emily Dickinson’s in its in-
tensity and unorthodoxy: it bypasses dogma to reach the heart of the divine.”
—Rennie McQuilkin, Author of The Weathering

“Ruminations at Twilight is not your average book of poetry, and L.M.

Browning is not your average poet. Reading this book is like tugging on the loose
string-end of the great ball of twine that is our human condition. One must be
brave to take up such a journey. One must be willing to “see”. Browning sees
knows, and offers a much-needed vision to the rest of us. These poems guide us
through the terrain of the ‘common wound’ and carry us into a place of healing,
anticipation and realization of the prospect of being our fullest selves in a torn
world that needs us to be exactly that.”
—Frank Owen, Author/creator of
the online poetry experience NEKYIA.POETRY

Praise for The Barren Plain

“Ms. Browning gives us a glimpse of a soul alone in the wasteland. A soul to

which everyone can relate. The Barren Plain is where one faces the deepest fears
that populate the landscape of the soul and are mirrored in this physical reality.
Through example and metaphor, Ms. Browning demonstrates how one’s upbring-
ing architected a personal wasteland for each of us. As a follow journeyer who has
traveled this desolate path, she offers short cuts for the reader through a map for
living in the Barren Plain as we transit to our dreams. This book can change the
way you look at life!”
—Mark Allen Perkins
Author of My Journey Back to Oneness

“I was struck, upon my reading of L.M. Browning’s latest book, The Bar-
ren Plain, by the single minded philosophical drive and the artistic discipline of
the author. Indeed, Browning seems never to lose for a moment sight, feel and
presence of her topic. She wants and needs to understand mankind’s complicated
relationships with each other and their mother Earth.
“While dealing with all the permutations of these relationships, she never
loses control of her artistic tool. The use of words and their placement on the page
to arrive at an almost hypnotic effect of physical but also ethereal imagery. As
usual, there exists in Browning’s work a studied efficiency of lyricism. Her style is
tight and never gratuitous. There is an almost Calvinist determination to get her
sense of immediacy to the reader. She calls upon us to have a purity of belief in his
or her own convictions.”
— Jean-Yves Solinga, PH.D,
Author of: Landscape of Envies and Clair-Obscur of the Soul
 “Beware! These words are not for the faint of heart. The Barren Plain is
the poetic equivalent of "taking the red pill," in which the blissfully ignorant per-
ceptions of the matrix of modernity evaporate before a painfully clear vision of the
actual reality of our shared condition. L.M. Browning transcends the mere title of
"writer" in this collection and restores to poetry a sense of the oracular; for it is in
these pages one simultaneously encounters the pathology of material civilization,
its wounds to the psyche of human and planet, yet also a possible path toward an
earth-honoring spiritual civilization.”
—Frank Owen,
creator of the online poetry experience NEKYIA.POETRY

"L.M. Browning's latest work is a masterpiece of emotion, drawing upon

her extraordinary mind and heart to carry us through the book in a manner both
honest and gentle. Divided into three chapters, they read more like three epic
poems, laying the groundwork for despair, love, desire and happiness, as well as a
deep hope for something more to a world which sorely needs it. It is unlikely you
shall find another book such as this, for works of this caliber and splendid nature
are sadly dying out."
—Vincent M. Spada,
Author of: One Under the Sun

“The Barren Plain is abundant with insight. Poet L.M. Browning sees what typi-
cally eludes the eye, and the mind’s eye. Her personal exploration of the Waste-
land is a trek of the external and the internal, the personal and the cultural, the
worldly and the Other Worldly. This is a poetic landscape in which, “those who
choose to seek actually have a chance of finding; while those who settle have no
hope at all.”
—Jamie K. Reaser,
Author of: Huntley Meadows: A Naturalist’s Journal in Verse and the
upcoming, Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out.
 The

BARREN
PLAIN
Poetry Exploring the Reality
of the Modern Wasteland

a
L.M. Browning

FIRST EDITION

Little Red Tree Publishing, LLC

New London, Connecticut
Copyright © 2010 L.M. Browning

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system
or transmitted in any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record-
ing or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner(s) and publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cover Image: Deadvlei by: Duncan George

2010 © Copyright Duncan George

Text and Cover Design: L.M. Browning and Michael J. Linnard

First Edition
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Browning, L. M.
The barren plain : poetry exploring the reality of the modern wasteland /
L. M. Browning. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-935656-06-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Spiritual life--Poetry. 2. Spirituality--Poetry. I. Title.
PS3602.R738B37 2010
811'.6--dc22
2010048834

Little Red Tree Publishing LLC

635 Ocean Avenue,
New London Connecticut 06320
www.littleredtree.com
 A l s o b y L. M. B r o w n i n g

Oak Wise: Poetry Exploring an Ecological Faith

Ruminations at Twilight: Poetry Exploring the Sacred
Forward
Preface
c
Contents

Introduction

Book I
Traversing the Wasteland

I. Never Meant to Be
II. Shared Journeys
III. Awakening to a Fearful Fate
IV. The Reality Without and the Reality Within
V. In All its Horror
VI. Denied Our Future
VII. The Forfeiting of Dreams
VIII. Disillusionment and Reeducation
IX. What the Child Knew
X. Extraordinary Waste
XI. The Unbearable Site
XII. Immoral and Insatiable
XIII. Abandoning One Another
XIV. The Famine of Hope
XV. The Withering of the World
XVI. Unwilling to Die
XVII. In Need of Reason
XVIII. Traveling Towards the Horizon
XIX. Senseless Struggle
XX. The Momentum of Certainty
XXI. Hope or Disillusion?
XXII. The Bodies on the Roadside
XXIII. Accepting a Half-Life
XXIV. Unblinking Awareness
XXV. Undeniable Truth
 XXVI. Accepting No Illusions
XXVII. Without a Veil
XXVIII. Full Life or Nothing
XXIX. Staring Into the Barren Plain
XXX. Only the Seekers Shall Find
XXXI. The Desolate In-Between
XXXII. The Transparent Nature of Illusions
XXXIII. The Vain Struggle
XXXIV. Foraging for Meaning in a Desert of Waste
XXXV. Standing Fearless
XXXVI. To Cower or To Confront
XXXVII. Childish Attempts
XXXVIII. The Inescapable Horizon
XXXIX. The Devastation of Youth
XL. Incomprehensible
XLI. Never Dark Enough
XLII. Reasoning Ourselves Into Our Grave
XLIII. Justified Pessimism
XLIV. Negating Opposites
XLV. Confess to the Concessions Made
XLVI. The Willful One
XLVII. To Find the Other Side
XLVIII. With Courage Comes Hope
XLIX. What was Once Changed, Can Be Changed Again
L. Reclaiming Our Home
LI. Inner-Salvation
LII. The Enduring Remnants
LIII. Correcting the Mistakes Made
LIV. Replanting the Ancient World
LV. The Meaning of Life
LVI. Worthy of What is Priceless
LVII. A Self-Sustaining Community
LVIII. The Embodiment
LIX. The Vision of What Lie Beyond
LX. Distinction Between Hope and Delusion
LXI. The Strain of the Miles
LXII. The Visionary’s Solitary Path Unto Realization
LXIII. Maintaining Perspective
LXIV. Warding off Hallucination
LXV. Led Astray
LXVI. Faith and Fortitude
LXVII. Willful Dreaming
LXVIII. Protecting the Achievement
LXIX. To Take Up the Walking Stick
Book II
The Mob, the Mold, the Margins
and the Independent Mind

I. Restrictions on the Limitless

II. The Generic Persona
III. Toe the Line
IV. The Willful
V. The Mental Straightjacket
VI. Exiled Nonconformists
VII. False Profits
VIII. Exhibitions of Vanity
IX. Brain-dead
X. Stewardship of the Great Illusions
XI. Bucking the System
XII. A Question of Rebirth
XIII. Mortal Concessions
XIV. Unaware Victims
XV. The Kidnapped Generations
XVI. Force-Fed
XVII. Asserting Our Birthrights
XVIII. The Overbearing Androgynous Voice
XIX. Attackers and Liberators
XX. The Womb of a Welcoming Presence
XXI. Surfacing
XXII. Gaping Holes in the Illusions we Depart
XXIII. Rejection of the Lie Brings Freedom to Discover Truth
XXIV. Another Way
XXV. The Hidden Roots of the Original Self
XXVI. Fear of What Cannot be Controlled
XXVII. The Sinking Boat
XXVIII. Boundless

Book III
The Matured Idealist

I. Misinterpreted
II. The Luxury of a Child
III. A Trait of the Sheltered
IV. The Mature Idealist
V. Acutely Aware Yet Still Hopeful
VI. Sole Survivor
 VII. The Inseparable Body and Soul
VIII. Willing to Act
IX. To Be or to Die
X. Maddening Awareness
XI. The Damned Immortal
XII. Digressive Reincarnation
XIII. The Living Death and the One Salvation
XIV. Dueling Visionaries
XV. Of Pure Intention
XVI. The Pacifist’s Revolution
XVII. The Premise
XVIII. Humanitarianism
XIX. Orphaned Dreams
XX. The Vital Sense of Expectation
XXI. The Unconscious Need
XXII. The Hardest Faith to Keep
XXIII. The Vision
XXIV. A Belief in Love
XXV. Fellowship
XXVI. Ready to Build
XXVII. Incited by One’s Own Heart
XXVIII. Death in Vain
XXIX. The Imperfect Transcendence
XXX. The Seeds of Rebirth
XXXI. Faith in the Minority
XXXII. Seen Enough
XXXIII. The Breaking Point
XXXIV. Sending a Flare Into the Darkest Night
XXXV. What We Once Were and Can Be Again
XXXVI. Turning Back for a Loved One Lost
XXXVII. The Voice of Reason
XXXVIII. Recognizing Each Other’s Worth
XXXIX. Untapped Goodness
XL. Compromised
XLI. Revolution
XLII. With One Voice
XLIII. A High Commitment
XLIV. Fidelity to Family
XLV. Gods and Governments be Damned
XLVI. Taking Apart the Great Machine
XLVII. What We All Must Do
XLVIII. Without Fear, Influence or Restraint
Conclusion
The Altruistic Cure

I. The Great Endeavor

II. Our Defining Purpose
III. Revolution Before Devastation
IV. Initializing the Change
V. Ending the Hate
VI. Absolving the Past
VII. Self-Inflictive Tendencies
VIII. Radiant Ones
IX. Without Fear
X. One Heart, One Body
XI. The Face of Our Savior
XII. Lack of Resonance
XIII. To End the Unending Cycle
XIV. The Original Evil
XV. A Choice
XVI. To Become Who We Are

Acknowledgements
About the Author
 acknowledgments
As I come to the end of this series, I find there are only a few people
whose efforts I have not already acknowledged in previous volumes; however,
I am of the mind that one cannot express their thanks enough.
Thank you to all those who submitted testimonials: Jamie K. Reaser,
Frank Owen, Vincent Spada and Mark Perkins. I am in awe of your works and
am humbled to have received your praise. You each tower in the forest of writ-
ers, both past and present, and I am honored that you have chosen to befriend
this burgeoning sapling.
To my Editor, Michael J. Linnard for the freedom you gave me, allowing
my voice to be published unaltered. Working with you to bring this series unto
the greater world has been a privilege.
To Duncan George for your generous use of the cover image; I respect
any man who puts passion before business. We will most certainly work to-
gether in the future, your photography alone seems to capture the inner-landscapes
of which I write.
To my partner in Hiraeth Press Jason Kirkey, thank you for making me
a part of your vision. I am immensely proud of what we are creating together.
With each new title released I feel we have restored part of the ancient wisdom
that has been lost. It is rare to meet a man of your integrity.
To my brothers and sisters in the Deadbolt Poet Society for your daily
inspiration. You each set the bar high with the work you bring forth, pushing
me to expect more of myself.
My deepest gratitude to Frank for seeing it fit to bring all of us Deadbolt
Poets together into our own family of storytellers, artists, hermits and seers.
You told me once, in the beginning of our friendship, of the ancient Japanese
proverb which says, "The mere brushing of sleeves of passers-by can reveal past
life connections." In meeting you I have reconnected with one whom I have certainly
conversed before of the deep things, whether in this world or the other; in hearing
your story I hear my own. You are my example of a Radiant One.
To Andy for your love and support; our candle-lit conversations have
been more healing than you will ever know. Your unwavering support has
helped me find the confidence to do what I might otherwise not have the courage to do.
To Kerry for all the long, blunt talks had while we attempt to find humor
in life’s ironies. To Ann-Marie for your sisterhood, encouragement and understanding.

And finally, to my family who are present

as well as those who reach out their support from afar—
I am but the hand that transcribes your wisdom.
 Preface

U nlike the other titles in this series, which came forward fully
formed and were written in a matter of months, The Barren Plain
took a longer time to put down. I have drafts of this manuscript that date back
some three or four years. The realizations contained within progressed as I be-
came more aware of the world we live in and the nature of these present days,
and they are progressing still.
Compared to Ruminations at Twilight and Oak Wise, The Barren Plain
is much more existential in tone. Within this book I explore a Barren Plain that
does not physically exist on the natural landscape but rather is found stretching
out within the inner-scape of us all.
In Oak Wise I explored the old Earth-based faiths of our ancestors and
the consciousness of the Earth we dwell upon. In Ruminations at Twilight I
explored our relationship with the Divine and with our purer selves. In both
books metaphor is used at times to convey certain aspects of emotion that can-
not otherwise be fully captured by the actual occurrence. Nonetheless in The
Barren Plain metaphor is used extensively in each poem, as I endeavor to reach
the true reality we dwell in emotionally as a result of the reality we dwell in
physically.
For example, the namesake poem in this book, Traversing the Waste-
land, entwines two metaphors: The Barren Plain and The Wasteland. The Bar-
ren Plain that stretches to the horizon, which is mentioned within this poem,
does not physically exist, in that the world has not transformed into a stark
desert that spans the globe. Nor does The Wasteland mentioned physically ex-
ist, in that, the world has not yet withered into a holocaustic scene. Yet, at the
same time, these places that do not exist for the eye to see are beheld each day.
We rise to them, we make our choices while standing within their sandy terrain
and feel the fear that rises in us as we stare into their disconcerting scenes; The
Wasteland being the world mankind has created upon this Earth and the Bar-
ren Plain being the existential, agonizing reality that must be faced each day by
those of us who dwell within that world.
Thus is the tone of this book you now hold in your hands. Within
these pages is an exploration of, not the world we find on our maps, but the
true world we were born into. In this book I explore not the Earth, as I did
in my previous titles, rather I explore the reality mankind instilled upon this
Earth—the bleak landscape of the world we erected upon the fertile ground of
this green Earth and the unfulfilling inner-reality we live in as a result of how
we have structured the internal workings of that world.

I
Introduction

a
started writing this book many years ago, when I was younger and
only beginning to realize the nature of the world I was born into, as
such there is a rather idealistic feel to parts of the premise which, despite my
attempt to mature in later revisions, remains slightly youthful in their message.
Due to setbacks in publishing plans and the precarious nature of the
writing business, oddly enough, the chronology of this contemplative series
was published backward—starting with my newest works (Oak Wise), which I
wrote over the Summer of 2009, traveling backward to The Barren Plain, which
I started in 2005-06. Despite this breech birth, my intended message has nev-
ertheless been a success.
Digging for meaning to irrigate the Barren Plain of humanity’s pres-
ent circumstances, wellsprings were struck, the waters of which gathered to
become Oak Wise and Ruminations at Twilight yet here in The Barren Plain is
the initial disillusion that underlined the need and importance for such explo-
rations. The realization of existence of The Barren Plain came first, the explo-
rations of the Sacred and Purer Self found in Ruminations at Twilight and Oak
Wise came after, as a means of seeking out meaning after waking to the inner-
desolation inherent to this malnourished modern age.

~

At this, the end of this contemplative series, I cannot help but look
back at the beginning—not the beginning of the series but the beginning of my
contemplative life. Those who have only known me for the past few years,
will not credit how openly optimistic I once was. Unbridled passion to aid, to
share, to connect projected out into the world—this is what/who I was in the
beginning.
Much more subdued in my hoping, at least on the surface, (I will not
deny that deep within me the exuberant youthful idealist still lives); the mature
idealist harnesses that exuberance and channels its energy into specific endeav-
ors. I live passively within the society of man, walking my quiet path, speaking
up in the ways that I choose, lending my efforts to what causes resonate within me.
I have dueling views of who I was at the beginning of my contemplative
life. At times I look back at my younger self, thinking that I have never been so
wise as I was in that period of idealistic youth. But still, at other times, I look
back at that innocently naive young girl and think I was never more unknowing.
After years of looking back on the beginning, I understand now that
this whole endeavor of writing began, for me, as a result of my desire to con-
nect. I believe that this desire—this need, more than any other defines us as
human beings and directs many, if not all, of our actions.
Some would say that our desire to connect stems from our desire to
be understood, others from our desire to understand; while still others would
propose that it is our need to complete our Self, which has become fragmented.
I believe that our need for connection arises from all these things. I
believe that the need for connection is inherent to the human being. Person-
ally, the desire to connect is ever-paramount; so strong in fact that my heart
reached out, not only to those around me within my immediate familial and
social circles but unto The Soul of the World, the unseen Divine and the collec-
tive consciousness of humanity’s ancestors.
We are all born with this heart, through which we may connect to any
other living Being in existence corporeal or incorporeal, dwelling upon this
plain or another. My story is not unique, only what I choose to do with the
knowledge I have gained through my inner-communion is my own. What you
hold in your hands is what I have chosen to fashion with the insights received.
The defining need of the human being is connection. It is my belief
that each individual will continue to reach out until they connect to that which
will fulfill them and bring to manifest their inner-potential, and if they are
unable to make that connection with those who dwell around them they will
reach out unto those that live beyond. Over the last years of my life I have been
given many titles: a shaman, a poet, a bard, a mystic but what I think I am is
very human.

—L.M. Browning
Connecticut ~ Autumn 2010
 To those striving to transcend the Wasteland.
To those exiles living outside the Margins.
To those Mature Idealists who have given all for their vision.
And to those striving to become a part of the Altruistic Cure.

—You are my kin.

 c
Waking to the World

Leaping from the cliffs of possibility and idealism

we plunge into the depths of the world,
shattering on impact as we collide
face-first with the basin’s shallow bottom.
 a BOOK I
Traversing
the Wasteland
 Book I — The Barren Plain

I.
Never Meant to Be

Life, as we have chosen to make it,

is a bastardization of what it is to live.

This, mankind’s world,

was conceived in a moment of lusting,
when we freed ourselves to act on our greed.

Lusting for wealth, for domination,

we took this untouched Earth
and built what we would upon it.

Upon the fertile ground

we erected a detrimental system.

Within this spherical world

we made a linear, hollow reality.

Unrestrained, roaming where we chose

across the borderless landscape, our priorities shifted
and we went about building what would be our prison.

While living amid a natural abundance,

industrial musings crept into
the mind of the simple man.

Ravenous, the greedy ones

laid claim to the abundance
and the Wasteland spread;
until now, when it is beneath the feet
of every living creature.

2
The Barren Plain — Book I

II.
Shared Journeys

The scope of the landscape

that I attempt to encompass here,
is too vast in its horrors
for this humble volume to contain.

Looking out across the land,

I am speechless but for one question
that repeats in me over and over:
What possesses us
to shape the world as we have?

Given this sacred space

upon which to live out our lives
—upon which to define what living is—
why did we choose to make this our existence?

Greed-driven, profit-minded
fashion-conscious, media-savvy,
battle-ready, social-climbing—
all the things that we have become,
all the while losing who we should be.

What this world has become

cannot be fully conveyed.

Yet you dwell here with me cousin—

upon this plain.
We both attempt to survive
upon the same hostile lands,
and so some things can go
unspoken between us.
in the verses to come.

...I can leave you to read between the lines

and put upon these words their final layer;
for both you and I know that unconveyable depth
that this world has sunken to.

3
 Book I — The Barren Plain

III.
Awakening to a Fearful Fate

A realization comes, and with it

a readjustment of sight.

Before my awakening,
I saw the world as it is
portrayed in the propaganda
recited to us in primary school
and subsequently reinforced
by the twenty-four hour media stream.

Now, afterward,
disillusioned of the virtues of this world
that is killing us without
and distorting us within,
I see a stark desert
—its Barren Plain stretching out before me—
across the future years of my life.

Trembling before
this threateningly blank landscape
that is my lifetime in this wanting world,
I look for some kind of assurance
to take hold of, with which to steady myself.

Standing within the bleakness

of this world of perverse waste,
I find I am in need of an assurance
that I am indeed working with a purpose.

4
The Barren Plain — Book I

IV.
The Reality Without and the Reality Within

Proclaimed an age of marvels

—an age of visions realized—
the gripping emptiness raging
in each of us, speaks otherwise.

Acutely awoken, I find myself

not in an Eden but in the Wasteland.

The land of waste—

such is the vista of mankind’s world.
...such is the legacy behind us
and the forlorn fate before us.

The Wasteland is the World mankind

has created upon this Earth;
while the Barren Plain is the existential reality
that must be faced each day.

They are the two dimensions

of this single present-day reality,
wherein we are denied
all that we need to live a full life.

5
 Book I — The Barren Plain

V.
In All its Horror

The Barren Plain

stretches out within our soul.

It is the knowledge
that this world we are apart of
holds nothing for us.

It is the fear
that our life has ended
before it ever began.

Awakening to the Barren Plain

is the result of a cumulative disillusionment
wherein the imagined abundance
of possibility and hope dissolves,
and the true nature of the
rotting corrupt surround is revealed.

When we come to realize the full extent

of the lies we have been told,
we awaken to the Barren Plain.

When the god we looked to

is revealed to be the creation of man,
we awaken to the Barren Plain.

When we are disillusioned

of the inherent goodness of mankind
and come to see the rampant evil,
we awaken to the Barren Plain.

When we come to fear that we will never have

those simple things we have dreamt of knowing,
we find ourselves staring out across the Barren Plain.

6
The Barren Plain — Book I

VI.
Denied Our Future

When we are awoke from our illusions of liberty

by the sting of dreams dead at the hand
of much need and little choice,
we find the Barren Plain before us.

This place where we are robbed of

the chance to achieve our dreams
and realize our full potential;
for we are born the slave of money
and as such must put the will of our heart
second to our immediate survival.
In an unending cycle of working to pay the greedy
who hoard what belongs to all mankind
so that we may survive another day;
all along never getting to live the life we intended.

This place where we are denied

full freedom and opportunity—
cursed to work for the prominent
who claimed ownership over
the sources of life’s necessities,
which rightfully belonged to all
living creatures born of the Great Mother.

The Barren Plain

is the post-apocalyptic—post-industrial—
post-Revelations world whose very nature is toxic
to our dreams, our morality and our humanity.

7
 Book I — The Barren Plain

VII.
The Forfeiting of Dreams

We are born believing that

the world is a kind, nurturing place.

We are taught to dream

and told we can be anything—
go anywhere, if we are not afraid to hope
and do not shy away from hard work,
yet at some point we awaken to it—
to the injustice,
to the prejudice,
to the corruption
...to the despair.

At some point,
the dreamer struggles with concession,
the idealist struggles with practicality,
and our vision of a meaningful life
is lost in the shuffle of the monthly bill statements.

We call this disillusionment

the process of waking to the real world
but truly it is the moment
when we realize how beastly mankind has become
and face the unfair, hollow nature
of the world into which we have been born.

We portray this shift of perspective as

the taking up of our adult responsibilities
yet those are the words of the taskmaster who is
putting the yoke on the neck of our dreaming selves.

8
The Barren Plain — Book I

VIII.
Disillusionment and Reeducation

As children we dream with ease,

knowing not of the difficulties we will face
when we try to bring to fruition all that we have hoped for.

As children we live in the world of what can be,

having not yet been awoken to the world that is.

Coming into maturity has now been associated with

the crashing down into humanity’s true circumstances.

The impact from the fall

—as we strike the hard
unyielding ground of adversity—
is said to be what awakens us
from the fairy tale of youth
and into the hard reality of adulthood.

As children we are allowed

to roam the lush fields
in a land of natural abundance,
protected, if we are fortunate,
by our parents whom let us spend
as much time as we can here,
before we are awoken
by the unfeeling hand of circumstance
and brought into the arid desert of our adult reality.

We go from the cradle into the fray,

shocked to see the masses crawl over one another,
without care for what they trample
in their rush to acquire just the smallest morsel
to feed their ravenous greed.

Waking to the starved world

where opportunity is rationed out,
meaning and genuineness have run dry
and circumstance, not desire,
dictates what our life shall be—
it is in this moment that we first glimpse
the desolate, miserable landscape that is
the Barren Plain.

9
 Book I — The Barren Plain

IX.
What the Child Knew

The abundance we lived in

throughout childhood
was not an imagined place;
the ease with which we thought
we could achieve all things
was not a naive misconception.

We viewed the world as a place of possibility

because some ancient part of us
could recall the way the world once was
before greed was born from the black womb.
...some part of us knew
the way the world should be.

The world was once

the place of fruition,
not the Wasteland.

A lifetime was once

a period of growth,
not a slow weary decay.

It was a period of experiencing

one degree of fulfillment after the next.

Life was never meant to be the building

and then forfeiting of dreams.

It was not meant to be a span of slavery,

working for the power-hungry man.

The Great Awakening

unto the depths of the real world
was never meant to be
associated with the site of this harsh reality.

Make no mistake, the agony felt

throughout the drawn out death of hope
slowly bitters the child’s mind
wearing us down—not maturing us.

10
The Barren Plain — Book I

X.
Extraordinary Waste

The difficulties and strains

of the way of life we know
were never meant to be.

Life was never

suppose to be approached
as a long unrelenting fight
unto a vain death.

We were never meant

to find ourselves upon a Barren Plain
trying to salvage some kind of existence;
accepting that our life will only be a mere shadow
of the grand, full experience it was promised to be.

Nonetheless, despite all it should be,

the meaning found in living
has slowly rotted away
under the suffocating structures
of the detrimental system
man has built atop this Earth.

Until now,
when our extraordinary life
has become a vessel to
be filled with all that is trivial.

11
 Book I — The Barren Plain

XI.
The Unbearable Sight

Many have chosen

to settle upon the Barren Plain,
erecting a veil around them
to hide its disconcerting scene.

In the process, yielding what is

most precious to them
unto their hopelessness—
too lazy to change a way of life
that is in fact taking their life,
too afraid of the effort it would take
to rebuild the world that has been so maimed.

While those of us who seek meaning

—who are starving for substance—
find ourselves crawling across
the plain’s unending expanse,
unwilling to settle, unwilling to concede
yet unable to find what we are in need of.

12
The Barren Plain — Book I

XII.
Immoral and Insatiable

The Earth has been overtaken by the evil.

Stripped bare by the greedy—
the abundance stolen and hoarded,
to be consumed by gluttonous mouths
in warm, comfortable rooms
far away from the ugliness of this world.

Upon the Earth’s fertile ground

The Abundance once flourished—
deeply-rooted and eternally yielding.
Yet the immoral gathered, like a dark cloud on the horizon;
turned ravenous in their insatiable lust,
they passed over the Earth in a menacing swarm.
Staking claim over all that is vital—taking possession
over that which all beings were meant to have shared in.

These beast-like men broke the natural laws

in the name of their new god, the coin,
and the inheritance due unto
all living creatures was plundered.

They dammed the might of the rivers

that nourished the land—bringing it to life,
that they might charge a tax to all of us
who live down stream in need of it to survive.

They divided the rolling plain in a mutilating act,

so to rent out pieces of the Earth’s body—
turning their own mother into a whore
whose earnings could line their pockets.

These greedy demons cleared away

the deeply-rooted towering groves,
which sheltered and fed us, in order
to build the new vision of the world
they had seen through their lens of greed.

Strangling the world in their

single-minded, covetous insanity,
until it gave out and the decayed corpse of the Earth
that is the Barren Plain, was all that was left.

13
 Book I — The Barren Plain

XIII.
Abandoning One Another

The life we each has the birthright to was stolen

from us before we even came into this world;
now held for ransom at a price
we will never be able to pay.

Our forefathers harvested the abundance

to slothfully keep themselves in luxury.
While, forgetting our familial bonds
our brothers and sisters turned on each other
—fighting viciously over all that remained—
turning out those of us who would not take up
the mob mentality, out onto the plains of poverty
to roam as ghostly beggars.

And so it was, that the sacred place

where the well of possibility and opportunity
once lie open for all to partake of, was claimed.

The one well upon this Earth whose water

has the nutrients to feed our dreams
—bring them to life—
thus giving us a meaningful existence.

The land which the well lies upon was claimed

by the most prominent of the mob.
An impenetrable wall was raised around it,
with guards set upon its high towers of condescension
and now its waters of freedom and fruition are doled out
only to those they see as worthy,
to those whose ambitions align
with the way of life condoned by the mob
as to what should be pursued within a lifetime.

While the unfavored are left standing

out upon the parched Barren Plain,
which their raids left the world to be,
with dehydrated hopes,
emaciated body and desiccated spirit,
trying to keep our dreams alive.
…Dreams that hold our vision
of what a meaningful life is.

14
 about the author

L.M. Browning grew up in a small fishing village in Connecticut. She

began writing at the age of 15 following what she describes as “a profound spiri-
tual awakening.”
Mankind’s relationship with the sacred, is at the center of this young
poet’s themes. Raised a Catholic, she studied the history of this faith and it’s
doctrine thoroughly; however, her spiritual search eventually crossed the
boundaries into the other religions of the world, compelling her to investigate
Judaism, Tibetan Buddhism, Druidry and Shamanism. Then, in 2004, Browning
made one of the defining choices of her life when she decided to move away
from world religion as a whole; taking the few truths she felt to be absolute as
she followed her heart in search of personal answers.
It has been during this time of exploration and redefinition that
Browning wrote her contemplative poetry series: Oak Wise: Poetry Exploring
an Ecological Faith, Ruminations at Twilight: Poetry Exploring the Sacred and
The Barren Plain: Poetry Exploring the Reality of the Modern Wasteland.
Miss Browning recently became a partner at Hiraeth Press, an Inde-
pendent Publisher of Contemplative and Ecological titles based outside Boston,
in the watershed of Massachusetts. She is also an Associate Editor of Written
River: A Journal of Eco-Poetics, Hiraeth Press’ quarterly publication.
Continuing to reside in Connecticut, she is currently working as
a Teacher of Special Education as she studies for her degree in Philosophy
through the University of London External Programme. Browning’s forthcom-
ing titles include her first full-length novel, anticipated for a Autumn 2011 re-
lease and her next poetry collection entitled, From the Blood of the Wound com-
ing later in 2012.

For more information on L.M. Browning’s current projects visit her blog:
www.lmbrowning.wordpress.com