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Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2017
Can you paint the picture
  brushless

Can you sing the words
  while mute

Can you dance the lone
  fandango

Can you rage
  beyond your youth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
Can you trust
  if not equal

Can you hate
  if not shown

Can you love
  without taking

Can you have
—but not own

(Ardmore Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2020
Victim of format,
prisoner of rhyme

Inmate of vision
—exile sublime

(Monmartre France: April, 1978)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2018
Where intellect ends,
  the spirit begins

Capstone reversing
—direction within

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
What the heart holds captive
—the mind will never free

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2023
Trapped in politics
—victims we remain

(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2019
Striving to be anonymous,
  the hole got deeper still

Ties were broken, ropes were cut,
  less water in the well

Alone within my loneliness
  the darkness came at last

The wish, I wish, I’d wished away
  —had captured me at last

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Where have all the Poets gone,
  has time then captured and slain

Those heraldic writers of messaged truth
  —whose shields once bore their names

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2020
Sentenced to the future,
for those sins unpunished now

Caught inside a fatal moment
—breaking sacred vows

(St David’s Pennsylvania: February, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2021
Life is short,
Art is long

Words but letters
—in search of song

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2020
The prostrate lizard,
hated savior,
crawls the crooked road to the city

Figures, sinking with the light,
bending your prayers
—watching the sun

Light retreats
as shadows leave,
emptying space for a new awareness

Its carnal madness
telling again and again
—how far you’ve come

(West Philadelphia: December, 1972)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2024
Only when writing
do you become ageless
Communing with eternity
— transcending time

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2024
God is
or He isn’t
All human reasoning
— dust in the wind

(Ode To Descartes: ‘I Believe, Therefore He Is’) May, 2024
Kurt Philip Behm May 2022
Rest assured in the knowledge you are
—without having to know why

(Dreansleep: May, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2023
Reality’s made
of what
it is
Not what
it might
have been

The apple
landing
on my head
Bespeaks
of now
not then

All abstract
nature
Plato drawn
To live
behind
the mask

What’s real
in substance
real in form
No future
and
—no past

(Strafford Pennsylvania: November, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2021
The Present
an undivided instant,
motion incarnate
senses believed

The Past left captive
to memory’s enigma,
the Future escaping
—wishes deceive

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2021
Altering the future
confirms your existence

In for a penny
—out for a pound

(Amtrak R5: June, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2020
Given facts  
and reasoned truth…

Can't marry each other
without changing their suit

Some things our intellect
tries to explain

Can you turn off a light
that turns back on again

The reasoning sands
and factual concrete

From thin ice to thick,
what’s now indiscreet

Decisions and choices
are still made the same

But to rent or to own
—real estate of this game

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: October, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2024
Abandoned
on the road of distant sorrow
mile markers ****** from the vagrants
it has claimed
All names
inscribed with crimson warnings
on devil written
eulogies
Their cries
entombed within an
eastern wind
— that blows away the dawn

(The Devil’s Highway (666): June, 2002)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
May words be courageous,
  with thoughts on fire

This pen as my shield,
  to smite the ire

The darker the cave,
  bigger demons to hide

With truth as my torch
  —casting darkness aside

(Dreamsleep: June, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2024
Casting Off The Bow Line

Goodbye
my ***** darling
I’m married
to this dream

Freedom
calling out to me
betrothal thus
redeemed

Bachelorhood
a Siren’s calling
Feted tween
the sails

Truant winds
to act upon
Legends
tell the tale

Setting off
this final time
Rudder
in my hand

Truth when hoisted
up the mast
Liberty
— commands

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

So Imbued

Crime without sanction
honor among thieves
Tomatoes tomattos
prudish obscene

Rules as their written
intention entwined
Good becomes bad
sight becomes blind

Credence engendered
by those so imbued
A prince or a pauper
depends on your view

The world in a tailspin
no two think the same
the baby the bathwater
— praising the blame  

(The New Room: February, 2024)


Time Awaits

Not connected to
the dollar

Courted
never wed

Engaged to no one
but himself

Making
his own bed

All fame and fortune
lost to fate

Constancy
of mind

Whose future readers
time awaits

His legacy
— to find

(The New Room: February, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
By darkness I trolled
  in my oft-shedding skin

Hidden alleys I roamed
  for new victims at whim

But at last I must face
  the deception I’ve wrought

And repay every memory
  that festers and rots

As my twisted rebellion
  turns its anger within

No forgive or forgetting
  or my blaming the gin

In the few moments left
  as I slither and weave

Still bearing false witness
  against those I’ve deceived

My venom gets swallowed
  death final and small

With the light I once blocked
  —casting shame on it all

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2018
By darkness I trolled
  in my oft-shedding skin

Hidden alleys I roamed
  for new victims at whim

But at last I must face
  the deception I’ve wrought

And repay every memory
  that festers and rots

As my twisted  rebellion
  turns its anger within

No forgive or forgetting
  or my blaming the gin

In the few moments left
  as I slither and weave

Still bearing false witness
  against those I’ve deceived

My venom gets swallowed
  death final and small

With the light I once blocked
  —casting shame on it all

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
The beginning
of the end
The end
of the beginning
To look
and not see
A desperate
path

To start
what can’t finish
Destroying
tomorrow
When eyes
remain closed
The future
— uncast

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2019
The tide of redemption
—catches all in its wake

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2018
Looking over the edge
  of an emotional cliff

I saw new feelings
  for the very first time

Crying out from the back
  of a Seraph’s wings

They were begging for me
  to climb on

Promising a flight above
  reason and logic

Blinding my eyes
  with overpowering rhyme

I fell into the new silence
  with the Angels below

Catching my words as they
   dropped
    —in their song

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2023
Chasing a memory
wrapped in a moonbeam
Lighting the darkness
—freeing the words

(Dreamsleep: September, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2019
Looking beyond our differences,
the transformation deepened

Speaking without words,
the conversation spiked

Touching without holding on,
all feelings turned to ecstasy

Loving while letting go
—the caterpillars delight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2017
Looking beyond our differences,
  the image deepened

Speaking without words,
  the conversation spiked

Touching without holding on,
  all feelings turned to ecstasy

Loving while letting go,
—the caterpillars delight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2019
“We’re all human” my Grandmother
    used to say
     —some of us are just more human than others

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2022
Before the analysis
before the dissection
First came the reading
—the deepest of cuts

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2017
Dangerous hunt,
  critical thoughts

Words set the trap,
—truth to be caught

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2020
Shadows running from themselves,
caught in the in-between

Darkness battling with the light
—redemption sight unseen

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2020
Waiting for yesterday,
I stumbled into tomorrow
—and found my spirit lost

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2016
People of
Reposition
Men of
Calm
Islands of
Immunity
Centuries
Palm
Keepers of
Kingdoms
Regents of
Sight
Pilgrims of
Pugilance
Nomads
Delight
Seekers of
Solitude
Freedom
Within
Sages with
Sustenance
Queens on
The wind
Dogmas of
Certainty
Knights of
The sword
Prisoners of
Dignity
All caught,
—by the word!

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 1977)
'An Anthology Of Perception Vol #1'
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2020
All discovery…
but one grand paradox

All reflection
—caught deeply there within

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2021
Nature—Lord of everything
its blizzards and its droughts

Talking back to a hurricane,
you whisper as it shouts

Your treasured possessions lie in wait
for floods to take away

That rumble heard beneath your feet
to swallow as you pray

Those things you grow and seeds you plant,
the locust comes to claim

As tidal waves begin to form
—you powerless to blame

(The New Room: November, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2024
She believed in Astrology
he believed in her
Their White House chart in symbols strange
whose doctrine ebbed and flowed
She believed the stars made sense
her love had made him blind
To what his darkest fears had robbed
— a modern day Tom Joad

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
Reaching into the demon’s mouth,
  the search entraps and burns

With every click and byte we choose,
  the less we seem to learn

Our privacy we save as bait,
  the wolves set free to run

Stripped and naked, to live as prey,
  —our pasts now theirs to hunt

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2024
Decision triggers fate
like a fuse ignites a bomb

Priming every choice we make
— until all karma’s gone

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2024
Like wine
deep in the racks
poems
carefully age
Each of a
vintage
a time and a place
— labeled to consume

(The Rathskeller: July, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2019
We’ve allowed our cities
  to turn into jungles

And now act surprised
  when the animals bite and maim

Refrain:

     “The new ‘Heart Of Darkness’
        the hunted unfree

      “Our surprise at their rebellion
        but the blame plain to see

      “A planned isolation
        the haves from have not’s

      “Now a cemetery of dreams
        —for dark progeny to rot”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2024
The half cost of silence
is still overpriced
Each question unspoken
a chasm for vice

When blind to the moment
all vision exhausts
Each voice that is muted
— its own holocaust

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2018
The great American Songbook
  whose words march off the page

Its music now a footnote
  —to a century of rage

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
Memory of light,
vision of God

Centered return
—orbit of love

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2016
Memory of light,
  vision of God

Centered return,
—orbit of love

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2024
Living Well — Dying Well
precepts of destiny
bookends of fate

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

+  —  

Patience and time
Courage or fear
Pleasure then pain
Smiles and tears

Future and past
Joy or remorse
Vision when blind
Blessing or curse

Borrow or steal
Praise and then blame
Life unto death
Loss or a gain

Reason and anger
Random or fate
Plussing the minus
— open the gate

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Body & Soul

Disease …
robs you
of your health

Dementia …
robs you
of yourself

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


\
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2022
Is democracy sinking
into feral autocracy
The billionaire elites
with all the control

Politicians but puppets
where rich pull the strings
The rest of us lost
in deception and whim

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2024
A thousand answers
one last question
— why

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2018
Refusing to fight the major war,
  the war based on principles,
  the one we can win

We’re forced to fight a never-ending series
  of political wars,
  ones that we can only lose

We’re trapped in the middle of Appeasement River
  and headed for Chamberlain Falls,
  terror awaiting in the rapids now ahead

Slowing down the current or rowing harder wont
  save us, it only extends the time of our demise,
  capitulation pulling us under toward the roar

As a country, we’re now in the middle of that river
  arguing over who has the water rights,
  arguing over whose paddle is best

Until we get off the river and back on dry land,
  Chamberlain Falls will continue to pull
     —and Armageddon will continue to call

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)
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