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I have zero regard
for structure and form
if the words as written work
A poetic outlaw
to ruled acceptance
in search of what may lurk
Critics and enemies
seed the cloud
that overflows with spite
To rain upon  
my chosen path
— of radical delight

(Bryn Mawr College: January, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2019
Choking on arrogance,
  occlusion unrhymed

The Reaper lies waiting,
  graveyard of Mimes

Choking on arrogance,
  last curse to remain

Spat into the wind
  —returning black rain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2023
The sins of the father
the sins of the son
Repentance left vacant
each sorrow rerun
An age of despondence
an age of denial
The past beyond hope
—the future beguiled  

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)
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)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2020
Ovarian, Breast, Pancreatic, or Lung…
there’s a look that is shared the same

And staring straight into the eyes of time,
all promises gone and reclaimed

Each moment borrowed and leased from your fear,
the walls crashing one by one

Tonight no longer a sleep guaranteed
—under blankets of doubt unsung

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
The wound bleeds free
—that kills the angry heart

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)
From My Novel 'Jumping Into The Darkness'
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2019
Is there a higher art
than Martial Art

To live or to die
—all wounds bleeding free

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2021
Blood stains in my memory,
clotting in my heart

Arteries of pain and loss
—hemorrhaging the dark

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2022
Hearing it again
for the thousandth rhyme,
still within the present
More inherent, more alive,
each reading
more resurgent

Hearing it again
the words still new,
reborn as they’re recited
Bleeding the moment
away from time
—no longer unrequited

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2023
Humility
the hardest skin
for pride to pierce
—and lie within

(The 1st Book Of Prayers: February, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2016
Sages and broomsticks,
  motherless pearls
Witches that threaten,
  fatherless girls
New curse of the ages,
  old grudges remain
A coven of stages,
  to hide from the rain
The mark then of Satan,
  the touch of the Lord
The death plated sunset,
  and winner forlorn
This trap now a quandary,
  and you must break free
As with all soiled laundry,
  to burn once unsleeved
The truth is not distant,
   its first word never feigned
And the peace that you’re seeking
  still inside you unclaimed
So let go of the dogma,
  and the medals will melt
As new songs to arrival,
  you will write most heartfelt
But the moment is now,
  and the moment is clear
Once the moment is christened,
  new joy spins from fear
So to those who still threaten,
  with eternity ******
Say:
        “Away with your blasphemy,
          stop where you stand
        These wings have now sprouted,
         my eyes looking in
        A new life has been gifted,
        —I’m blessed to begin”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2018
Sages and broomsticks
  motherless pearls
Witches that threaten
  fatherless girls
Curse of the ages
  old grudges remain
A coven of stages
  to hide from the rain
The markings of Satan
  the touch of the Lord
A death plated sunset
  and winner forlorn
The trap now a quandary
  and you must break free
As with all soiled laundry
  to burn once deceived
The truth is not distant
  first word never feigned
The peace that you’re seeking
  inside you unclaimed
So let go of the dogma
  the medals will melt
New songs of arrival
  you’ll write most heartfelt
But the moment is now
  and the moment is clear
Once the moment is christened
  new joy spins from fear
To those who still threaten
  with eternity ******…
Say:
        “Away with your blasphemy,
          stop where you stand
        These wings have reopened
          my eyes looking in
        New life has been gifted
          —I’m blessed to begin”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2014)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2020
Looking down,
I’ve been so lucky

Looking up,
still more to know

Fortune smiles,
the road still open

Steeper yet
—but blessed to go

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2020
Being poor…
having no money

Conjoined,
yet not the same

Faith in the wind,
promises born

Wings free
—to be reclaimed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2021
Church always sides
with canons and might,
preaching of dawn
while blessing the night

Holiness shines
among diamonds and gold,
the battle unwon
—till redemption is sold

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2022
Memory of light,
vision of God

Centered return
—orbit of love

(The First Book Of Prayers: November, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
The quandary of physics…
  a tool to divide

A slave to its master,
  alone to misguide

Capable of function,
  but never intent

An eye without vision
  —and blind with contempt

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2021
There’s something more valued
than dollars and cents…
humanity trumping pretend

Your mantra has been
that “winning’s enough”
losing yourself in the end

Each attempt to be clever
and self-aggrandize
takes you away from what’s real

The most treasured of things
to be loved and endeared
—your actions can’t borrow or steal

(The New Room: September, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2021
Love is incapable of honor,
desperation of all that’s unfair

Desire unleashed to roam and to prey
—tomorrow for others to bear

(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2018
The Emperor walks naked
  past eyes fully cloned

To his subjects he panders
  his pride for a throne

His strut his true signature
  exposure supreme

Your opinion no matter
  —he colors you green

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2019
Dying the slow death of political infection,
it hides within our words

As we try to run, and try to hide,
its plague a constant scourge

Poisoning the water, despoiling our thoughts,
all freedom it commands

Directing the folly, conscripting all joy
—our blindfold it demands

(Dreamsleep: August, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2021
Preferred indifference,
the Stoics say

The arm’s length model
where choices stray

In for a penny,
in for a pound

The shield left naked
—when outward bound

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2021
Fire burns hottest
that burns below
Centuries rage
heartache’s grow
The coldest cold
blows just above
A gripping blizzard
—wrath ungloved


(Dreamsleep: August, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2021
The last day of vacation,
you told me things had changed

The last day of vacation,
each word seducing pain

The last day of vacation,
a new look in your eyes

The last day of vacation,
unveiling your disguise

The last day of vacation,
your back to turn away

The last day of vacation,
our future gone astray

That last day of vacation,
the sun had left the sky

That last day of vacation
—hello became goodbye

(The New Room: November, 2021)
Before I knew the answers
life was one big question
Wonder hid round every turn
laughter as my Muse

As answers came the questions left
each day like that before
Laughter but an echoed wish
wonder lost — unfound

(Villanova University: April, 2024)
Intelligence
a number …
never a word

The writer
a halfwit
till viscerally heard

Tomato
tomatto
the pudding unproved

Empirical
nonsense
— the spirit unmoved

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Real poets don’t make lasting friends
they shun fraternity
Their truth like gritty sandpaper
abrasive when intoned  
The reader may be gratified
with what the words uncover
More likely though the pain involved
— will cut them to the bone

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2018
To hurt…
  just to know I can feel

To bleed…
  just to know I’m alive

The wounds of my fathers
  those never to heal

In remembrance
  —the past never dies

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2020
The knife edge of verse…
a verbal incision,
whose sharpness cuts both ways

Its blood groove runs heavy
with truth dripping free
—to mark the words unsaid  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2021
The best of the worst,
rules amidst chaos,
honor amongst thieves
—brothers in blood

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2020
Humanity is destined
for being at war

Attacking tomorrow,
its fate still unsure

New conflict resharpens
the dullest of blades

Where written in blood
—new history is made

(Valley Forge: November, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2021
I shun the words you long to hear,
my heart and spirit cry

The votive candle burning down,
its flame a dimming lie

My pen to struggle against your will,
and scribe the message owned

That blood has drafted and pain rewrites
—not borrowed nor then loaned

(Valley Forge: January, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2022
Compelled to fight *****,
in attempts to stay clean
The shadows conscripted,
clandestine and mean
Surprise as an ally,
you stalk and you spy
To vanquish the monster
—declawed and defied

(Villanova Chapel: December, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2017
You thought that you could skip a stitch,
  the thread provided free

You thought no one would ever notice,
  just one small opening

The seam then weakened steadily,
  threads loosened left and right

Excuses now unraveling,
  Old Glory taking flight

The sinew given strong and taut,
  to seal the danger out

But that one stitch you failed to close,
  won’t mute the nightmare’s shout

Miss Ross is now in mourning,
  as the stars have left the field

That one stitch you’ve forsaken,
—draining blood that wouldn’t yield

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2019
You thought that you could skip a stitch,
the thread provided free

You thought no one would ever notice,
just one small opening

The seam then weakened steadily,
threads loosened left and right

Excuses now unraveling,
Old Glory taking flight

The sinew given strong and taut,
to seal the danger out

But that one stitch you failed to close,
won’t mute the nightmare’s shout

Miss Ross is now in mourning,
as the stars have left the field

That one stitch you’ve forsaken
—draining blood that wouldn’t yield

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017) On-Line 3/22/2017
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2021
Leaving the place you’re going to,
my ultimate regret
a thorny road of promised dreams
I fled but can’t forget

Leaving the place that claims my heart,
still beating—buried deep
your pathway marked with blood I shed
whose wound this distance weeps

(The New Room: November, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
Living hard,
  the writing comes easy

Living easy,
  the writing comes hard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
Baby don’t you stay with me,
  Baby don’t you go

Baby what you get from me,
  what you got to show

Baby get away from me,
  Baby don’t you go

Baby why you hangin round,
  Baby don’t you know

Baby don’t you stay with me,
  Baby don’t you go

Baby there’s a whistle blowin,
   callin sweet and low

Baby stay away from me,
  Baby don’t you go

Gotta hop that mornin freight,
  Baby—don’t you know

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
A lotta times
it ain’t good
and it ain’t bad
— it’s what it is

(Blue Front Café: August, 1969)
Good
ain’t good enough
When bad
— is better

(The Uptown Theater 1967: Philadelphia Pennsylvania)
Nowhere
ain’t nowhere
when it’s where
— you belong

(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
Bend that reed,
Stretch that chord,
Split that vowel,
—drive home the word

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2021
Where would we be without the matter
of emptiness
What space would we reside in,
all things by degree
Emptiness as real as the matter
it contains
Perhaps even more
—as it first came to be

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
If being and the world
are one and the same
Then thinking and thoughts
are together to name
With freedom and consciousness
semantically fused
All judgment and will
—symbiotically cued

(Baldwin School: March, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2019
My life is a Poem,
not one chosen line

And travels within me,
each mountain I climb

It dwells symbiotic,
between body and soul

To hearten each moment
—keeping me whole

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2017
Hiding inside the written page,
  reality slipped away

Buried inside a meaning deep,
  its wolves were kept at bay

With feelings ablaze, all answers are torched
  a bonfire at the gate

New questions enshrined, false promises burned
  with ash to mark the way


(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2018
Hiding inside the written page,
  reality slipped away

Buried inside a meaning deep,
  its wolves were kept at bay

With feelings ablaze, all answers were torched,
  a bonfire at the gate

New questions enshrined, false promises burned,
  with ash to mark the way

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Bookends of a dream
  —the beginning and ending of tomorrow

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2020
Some words forever born inclined,
others bred in shadows

Verse conceived and left unread
—to wander lost and fallow

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)
Leaving tomorrow
starting again
Moments resplendent
free of the din

Touching a sunrise
kissing the rain
Hugging a moonbeam
— joy preordained


(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)
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