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112 · Apr 2021
Hidden Treasure
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
The deepest truth lay undiscovered
in the buried words
Like unfound gold existing only
on a pirate’s map
True value in the search required
to seek and grasp

Each phrase a burrowing pen
digs into the readers mine
Fortune concealing veins of discovery
covered and unknown
Ink running free as the shaft leads inward
—anticipation karat pure

(Watching “Hemingway #2: April, 2021)
112 · Jan 2023
When Life Was Perfect
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2023
The difference between
what you want
and what you need
—is what you can fit on a motorcycle

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)
112 · Aug 2017
My Father Instilled
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2017
My Mother called out to me,
  I had to come

To the depths of Her longing
  my spirit would run

From four thousand feet,
  She cried clear and loud

And as Her first born,
  I rushed downward and proud

From the Canadian Rockies,
  my destiny ran

Through Glacier and Yellowstone
  where all time began

At Page Her arms opened
  pulling me in

And She welcomed my rapids
  to baptize again

Reborn in the current
  of Their unbroken dream

She shouted my name
  the past-future redeemed

My intention now raging,
  my soul shared with Them

She asked of my Father,
  Her words formed the wind

I said, “He is sleeping,”
  His tears for you melt

His promise now drained,
  His love greatly felt

Her heart pounding furious,
  Her depths I now fill

Her womb I reenter
—my Father instilled

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2017)
112 · Jul 2021
Into The Mist
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2021
His shadow moved like smoke,
released from the fire

Fading in the night air
—never to return

(Searching For Crazy Horse II:  July, 2021)
112 · Jun 2024
Black Whole
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2024
If there wasn’t anyone
to see the change
change would still happen
change would become
Transcendence imploding
inside of itself
birthing the moment
birth zero-sum

(The New Room: June, 2024)
112 · Mar 15
His Essence To Be
God can’t become
that greater
than he is
God can’t become
tomorrow
or today
God can’t become
now or then
when always
God but exists
pure reason
— faith relayed

(The First Book Of Prayers: March, 2025)
112 · May 2019
Scars Of Experience
Kurt Philip Behm May 2019
How do you teach Poetics,
  can all experience be forged

Maybe Emily will share her secret,
  what did she explore

How can you convert a feeling,
  into words beyond the main

How do they become a Poem
—without scars to mark the pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)
111 · Oct 2021
Final Draft
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2021
My poetry selfish,
a teacher I’m not,
my message once for saying

Instruction a tool
long missing and gone,
imagery not relaying

The ivory tower
a dungeon to me
where freedom goes to die

The wind in the willows,
a hawk on the wing
—my verse to course and fly

(The New Room: October, 2021)
111 · Jul 2022
Letting You Go...
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2022
I spend my days
in celibacy unchosen
living the desperation
we share

Anguished in the knowledge
that needing you unbroken  
transcends the sentence
of this chair

I hear your words, I feel your touch
imprisoned by our love
and wish to free you from this pain
to meet again above

My memory holds each tryst endeared
your beauty most sublime
to relive as I stay in place
—virility confined  


(The New Room: July, 2022)
111 · Mar 2021
Meta-Chrysalis
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
To become what you look at,
to say what you know

Your eyes to retract,
your wisdom to grow

To live by a credo,
to die only once

Your soul to take flight
—your spirit to hunt

(Martha Browns Woods: March, 2021)
111 · Mar 27
Something For Kathryn
Your words
they fall silent
but your life
is a poem

Each motion
and gesture
by Heaven
are known

You rhyme
every smile
your eyes
metered guides

To love
written couplets
of joy
— from inside

(To Kathryn: March, 2025)
111 · Jan 2024
Lying Unbroken
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2024
The Great Chain of Being
it stretches beyond
both forest and meadow
past silence and song

It lays out behind you
to show where you’ve been
eternal before you
far into the din

The Great Chain of Being
attaches us all
through links of connection
from Winter through Fall

One looming question
forever remains
does the chain lie unbroken
—past future the same

(The New Room: January, 2024)
111 · Jan 2019
Canyon Dancers
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2019
Deep in the canyon with the grace of your souls
  carrying your memory inside me

Visiting places where we spent time before
  seeing each one of your faces

Hearing your voices whispering inside
  reminding of what we knew then

Sealing a vision all time has denied
   old beginnings freed from the end

Deep in the canyon, the cliffs high above
   the echoes like condors they climb

The river runs wild as it carries our dream
  like a mother in birth of a child

The wind calls out once, then calls out again
  its question defying an answer

As our souls reunite in the vastness below
   —the story of five canyon dancers

(Havasupai Indian Village: January, 2019)
111 · Mar 2021
Statues In The Park
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
If we can’t tell stories
about our past
—the future stays untold

If judged by standards
out of time
—the fault beyond control

Our history always
both good and bad
—correction on the rise

What happened, happened,
as time rolls on
—and yesterday reminds

(Independence Square Philadelphia: March, 2021)
111 · Jul 2018
My Indulgent Refrain
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2018
The better the words
  formed

The meaner they
  became

       ‘free and alive
       and stirred from the bottom

       'hidden and denied
       in moments of pain’

Taking on new life
  they glare and they scowl

Staring back from the mirror
  —my indulgent refrain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2016)
111 · Jun 2018
Last Verse—Zero Sum
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2018
A richness of words
  my legacy foretells

New questions to reason
  old mysteries dispelled

No breaths taken lightly
  or lines left undone

No memory forsaken
  last verse—zero sum

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
111 · Apr 2019
Heaven's Atelier
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
All of your efforts…
  an homage to false reasoning

Excuses misleading,
  art's truth to disown

Heaven's Atelier
  beyond comprehension

Its masterpiece living
  —beyond canvas or stone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
111 · Sep 2020
Airway To Heaven
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2020
Poetry…
my breath,
my life

Feelings
inhaled,
thoughts to delight

(Dreamsleep: September, 2020)
111 · Mar 2024
First Love
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2024
It happened
once
It happened
forever
But never ever
— again

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)
111 · Nov 2023
One Shot
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2023
In spite of all your riches
you eschew what prophets do
Basilicas you build to self
with time but empty pews

Wealth deadly suicidal
when wielded as a gun
Whose target sits between your eyes
with one shot zero-sum

(Dreamsleep: November, 2023)
111 · May 2021
Blood Oath
Kurt Philip Behm May 2021
The best of the worst,
rules amidst chaos,
honor amongst thieves
—brothers in blood

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)
111 · May 2019
Emptiness Reveals
Kurt Philip Behm May 2019
Loneliness arrives for breakfast,
  anxiety for lunch

Rejection for my dinner meal,
  desperation left for brunch

Passion came and passion went,
  the nighttime thief did steal

And darkness all that’s left to bear
  —the emptiness reveals

(Dreamsleep: May, 2019)
111 · Mar 2018
Never To Rest
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2018
I’m a Poet….
  don’t try to trap me with words
  or with logic you don’t understand

With your barrister’s training
  you’re out of your league
  this arena beyond your command

In some ways
  I’ve already said it all
  but never in the form you approve

Or with comforting platitudes
  lining your shell
  as pontification behooves

The slick easy answers
  unfit for a Sage
  but the pundit and liars attest

My message as spoken
  comes at great cost
    —your conscience never to rest

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2018)
111 · Feb 2019
America
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2019
The power of dissent
  —a true measure of our freedom

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)
111 · Jul 2019
Fear Self Indicts
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2019
Victim of passion,
purveyor of lies

Betrayer of talent,
bending the I

Captive obsession,
perspective now gone

Fear self-indicts
—when right turns to wrong

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)
111 · Feb 2018
The Claiming Race
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
Fame means part of you
Maybe all of you
Belongs to someone else
Someone vicarious in their intent
Insatiable given their adulation
Proprietary,
Eschewing personal risk or harm
Watching from the comfort
Of either praise or blame
They claim your soul like a
Racehorse
When you win their hearts
Leaving your memory abandoned
—when dissident odds prevail

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2015)
111 · May 2023
The Lord's Mirror
Kurt Philip Behm May 2023
When given the moon
don’t ask for the stars
Light when reflected
—from Heaven afar

(Dreamsleep: May, 2023)
111 · May 2020
A Demon That Hides
Kurt Philip Behm May 2020
Fear is a thief stealing into the future,
the past its lot to pawn

A larcenous demon that hides in the night,
from the gallant, intrepid—and strong

(Dreamsleep: May, 2020)
He died
in a whisper
alone
in its presence

The call of death
weaker
than what he’d
been told

Wading into its
shallows
each step
took him deeper

Reluctance
and acceptance
both swimming
in turn

Each voice
every motion
he passed
toward the bottom

The pressure of
choosing
now
drifting away

In denial
and waiting
the past
floating above him

But the end
of its
shouting
— had finally begun

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)
111 · Feb 2021
To Merlin
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2021
Freeing the myth,
begotten to dream

Ramparts to crumble
—Sorcerer’s scheme

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: February, 2021)
111 · Feb 2017
Its Tears
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2017
Softly,
  I leave you

Within the falling
   rain

And take my leave,
  the storms reprieve

Its tears,  
—to wash the pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)
111 · Dec 2023
Busted Flat ...
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2023
Busted Flat …

Poetic busking
the white lines advancing

A voice on the asphalt
the rubber — the road

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)



The Heaviest Silence

Oh, to be cursed
with the burden of truth

Without the propensity
—to speak it out loud

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)
111 · Oct 2021
Orphaning Winds
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2021
Changing with each season,
voices come and go
what’s lost undreamed, ourselves demeaned,
in search of the unknown

Naked and left wanting,
fortune sires myth
impregnating its mystery
—with tales of the abyss


(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)
111 · Nov 2024
Never Letting Go
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2024
We couldn’t survive
each to the other
We couldn’t let go
to live
We couldn’t give
without retaking
We couldn’t express
what we felt
We couldn’t stay quiet
when being together
We couldn’t come back
from the past
We couldn’t forgive
what time had rescinded
We couldn’t remember
— to forget

(Woodstock: Summer, 1969)
111 · Dec 2021
Second Guessing
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2021
This word or that word,
the length of the line

The meter, the rhythm,
to rhyme or not rhyme

Each voice comes unsettled,
new phrases diverse

Is it this way or that way
—when penning the verse

(The New Room: December, 2021)
111 · May 30
Sound Bites: 5-30-2025
Forbidden Ground

Wandering
beyond the limitation
of death
Trespassing
through the back gate
of forever
Maundering
alone in a ******
wilderness
Witnessing
the future destruction
—  of time

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)



Bookends

Enough to be absent
he fumbled the words  
His mind ever vacant
new truancies heard

Those spaces beyond him
those spaces behind
Bookends of fruition
— unspoken defined

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)



Sognefjord Waiting

A mile
past tomorrow
a glacier
lies at rest
New memories stored
within its fjord
awaiting
— our behest

(The New Room: May, 2025)
111 · Oct 2016
Just Because
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2016
The most important things don’t need a reason,
—just because

The falling leaves beyond their season,
—just because

The sun trades the night to the rising moon,
—just because

The lateness that brings one last final goodbye,
—just because

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)
111 · Nov 2022
Into The Headlights
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2022
To live non-affirming
to live not at all
To hide in the shadows
and creep down the hall

To live uncommitted
new doubts to contend
All time intermittent
repressed till the end

To live without friendship
alone on the rock
A wandering echo
reflections that mock

To live undecided
with doubt your best friend
a future derided
—the present pretend

(Dreamsleep: November, 2022)
111 · May 2019
Deja Vu
Kurt Philip Behm May 2019
The Future…
   is but the past unloved

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2019)
111 · Feb 2017
Deliver Me
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2017
Wishing it had been different,
  I used my last borrowed breath

And made a vow to repent for
  each denial

Praying for absolution,
  my final hope into the wind

Saying:

“**** me if you have to,
  but first deliver me from this lie”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)
110 · Jul 2023
Dreams Steal Away
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2023
Everything tended
to darken around her
The light from the sun
all feelings deferred

Her winter foreboding
***** air from the room
Constant denials
predictions of doom

Pawning tomorrow
the price of today
Happiness bartered
her dreams steal away

Everything tended
to darken around her
Shadows descending
—the future interred

(The New Room: July, 2023)
110 · Nov 2024
Escape Clause
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2024
Writing
is but
an escape
for the soul

Freeing
our passions
making
— us whole

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)
110 · Jun 2024
Lost Between
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2024
The backside
of tomorrow
The frontside
of today
Every look
retelling
Of what the past
betrays

Caught within
the doldrums
All time fades
in the mist
Until that day
that ends itself
And nothing more
— exists

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)
110 · Sep 2022
Breaking Through
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2022
If Sartre was right
and
“Hell Is—Other People”
then
Isolation holds the key
that
opens perception’s door

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)
110 · Sep 2018
Unbaptized Words
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2018
Certificate unsigned
  pen firmly in hand

The bliss not for barter
  its insight free-stands

Faith and acceptance
  may go where they please

To my grave and beyond
  the verse teaches and frees

No savior I ask for
  forgiveness I shun

Redemption unspoiled
  new ink on the run

Till one day uncovered
  hidden deep on the shelf

A message unchristened
   buried dark and unfelt

Where the voice I was gifted
  and the music I heard

In themselves live forever
  —free unbaptized words

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
110 · Apr 2021
Bench Made
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
My verse is like
a bespoke set of clothes,
fit the thing that counts

Each article worn,
new memories born,
to tighten or let out

My head to my toes,
its covering goes,
whose message spoken clear

To tailor new moments,
each stitch a new thread
—bench made to endear

(The New Room: April, 2021)
110 · Jul 2017
Night Guardian
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2017
A steward of memory
  —the caretaker of dreams

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)
110 · Apr 2017
Left To Spew
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2017
A heartbeat beyond perception,
  the verse becomes alive

Its arrow fixed, its prey in sight,
—new truth to hunt old lies

As light grows scarce, it draws its bow,
  with aim both clear and true

To strike deceptions middle eye,
—the devil left to spew

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
110 · Feb 2018
La Verdad
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
Unlike the curse
  placed on most ideologues

The Truth
—never contradicts itself

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
110 · Dec 2021
The Forest & The Trees
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2021
Don’t let the poetry
weaken the poem

The structure a servant
—for what’s to be known

(The New Room: December, 2021)
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