Kurt Philip Behm

Kurt Philip Behm 7d

To campaign
in poetry
but govern
in prose
Words stretch
till breaking
integrity
blown

Promising
everything
sins
unconfessed
Bombast
and pander
the charlatans
— best

(The New Room: July, 2025)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 6

Listening To Patsy ...

Memories
of Formica
kitchens
And 2-burner
Hotpoint
stoves
Lipstick on
a menthol
****
Costume
pearls
in rows
Perfume
from the
five and dime
Drive In’s
on the
field
A promise
made
a promise kept
And
love
— that time can’t steal

(Listening To Patsy Cline: July 4th, 2025)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 5

Betwixt The Between

Writing
in margins
where words never go
The meaning
bipolar
whose ink doesn’t show
Living
inceptive
divorced from the light
Married
to emptiness
— unstringing my kite

(The New Room: July, 2025)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 5

God Only Knows ...

Brian died
taking
part of me
with him

The part
that he
lent me
in 1966

Brian died
and the
colors
diminished

The notes
out of rhythm
and time
— left unmixed

(Pet Sounds-Ocean City N.J.: July, 1966)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 4

Omnipresent

And in the end
as it was
at the beginning
Only and forever
as spoken
— The One

(1st Book Of Prayers: July, 2025)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 4

The Holy Warrior

Through all
of his failings
and all
of his faults
His memory
redemptive
his conscience
set free

Through all
of the battles
and all
of the scars
His soul
still a ******
his heart
— is pristine

(Dreamsleep: July, 2025)

Kurt Philip Behm Jul 3

Memory's Black Hole

That vacuum
inside you
once in it
you’re trapped
Insular
nothingness
too late
to look back

What’s empty
imprisons
no reference
in space
Where freedom
and choice
become duly
— erased

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)