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Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
From here to eternity,
breakfast to lunch
The distance bespoke,
new hole card to punch

As yards change to meters,
fruition in sight
All travel inherent
—day changing to night

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2024
There’s no problem
with death
when it’s
tomorrow
One day from
today
as the calendar
turns
Time
stays an orphan
all moments
adopted
The end
yet beginning
its promise
— adjourned

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2018
My heart belongs to providence,
   as I walk that final mile

My footsteps bought and paid for,
  as I clear the last denial

My faith is bold and steadfast,
  as new rain begins to fall

Through the fog a horn is blowing
  the gate now open—Gabriel calls

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2019
My heart belongs to providence,
   as I walk that final mile

My footsteps bought and paid for,
   when I clear the last denial

My faith is bold and steadfast,
   a new rain begins to fall

Through the fog a horn is blowing
   the gate open—Gabriel calls

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
         From 'The Book Of Prayers'
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2020
A captive of your ontology,
a tiger in a cage

Doomed to look with borrowed eyes,
your life played out on stage

You pace the floor incessant,
as anger builds within

And hear the distance calling,
feeling trapped, an alien

Will that trumpet ever reach you,
by whose Archangel you’re reborn

Will redemption come to free you
—if Saint Gabriel blows his horn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2020
In the end…
all we have left
is the music

And music,
will be
more than enough

(Garrett Hill Pennsylvania: March, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2017
A captive of your ontology,
  a tiger in a cage

Doomed to look with borrowed eyes,
  your life played out on stage

You pace the floor incessant,
  as anger builds within

And hear the distance calling,
  feeling trapped, an alien

Will that trumpet ever reach you,
  by whose Archangel you’re reborn

Will redemption come to free you,
—if Saint Gabriel blows his horn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2021
A tempest swept in,
transporting my thoughts

The past to the future,
and back to today

Recapturing memories,
beginning again

Untimed reminiscence
—the present relayed

(Dreamsleep: February, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2020
Name dropping success…
a first name basis with failure

Hope into the wind,
heartache on the approaching storm

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
His life spinning inward,
  to its center returned

A whirlwind of intent,
—through the maelstrom it churned

His end was beginning,
  as the last became first

All time banished outward
—evil Gargouille dispersed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2020
Don’t give away the best part of yourself
to structure

   Don’t organize yourself into
spiritual oblivion

     Keep the magic of the instant
close at hand

  And the gateway to eternity
     —will remain open and pure

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2023
Gauntlet Of Time

Calling me forward
taking me back
Promising nothing
stepping over the cracks

A doorway awaits
threshold of pain
Whose entrance is crumbling
—to cross heaven gained

(Villanova University: December, 2023)



Over The Rainbow

No difference between
good and bad
when eyes
are caught between
What matters most
and matters least
the treasure
—sight unseen

(Villanova University: December, 2023)
The chorus of criticism
echoes unblessed
Where millions hide waiting
misled and repressed

Destruction and mayhem
the rallying cry
With freedom the villain
— in hope’s genocide

(The New Room: February, 2025)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2021
The road taken,
a path unwalked,
direction unto fate

A choice is made,
the debt unpaid
—redemption coming late

(Dreamsleep: July, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Married to introspection,
  we left for Paris

And with fools and dilettantes,
  got carried away

Living on melancholy,
  our quarter was poor

The Seine’s romance but fiction
   —our fantasies played

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2018
Married to introspection,
  we left for Paris

And with fools and dilettantes
  got carried away

Living on melancholy,
  our quarter was poor

The Seine’s romance but fiction
   —our fantasies played

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2024
It lives
in the margins
betwixt and between

Visible
yet fleeting
a light once unseen

When reaching
to touch
its magic forestalls

Lost to that
moment
— posterity calls

(Dreamsleep: December, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2019
The Lost Generation
  now lost online
  Paris, a web of postings

Its cafes are fed
  fresh verses unread
   —new Seines left overflowing

(Montmartre Paris: March, 2009)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2022
The graves of my youth
lay scattered behind me
Each headstone a failure
endorsed by my hand

A shroud covered memory
encloses my history
Where ghosts of tomorrow
roam—haunting my past

(St. David’s Church: September, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
Letting the page breathe,
my pen in its well
The letters enchanted,
recasting their spell
Beginning then ending,
beginning again
Rewriting the master
—their magic amends

(The New Room: March, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
All faith inside this present moment,
  it’s light my treasure—gifted free

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)
Happiness
you can’t explain
Forever joyous
— hope’s refrain

(The New Room: February, 2025)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2017
There just below the surface,
  more present than you know

A prophetic Jeremiah,
  tracks leading through the snow

His message serves to buttress,
  those standing in the light

A pipeline to eternity,
—his vision gifting sight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2024
Attract them
with tomorrow
but give them today
Entrance them
with verses
that pause and delay
The moment
resplendent
divorcing from time
To marry
with wonder
— those hoping to find

(The New Room: March, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
Having too much respect
  for the language

Trying never to get cute
  with the words

Being too much in debt
  to the feelings

Writing only what was given
—and heard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
My youth and virility
  left behind

The future-past
  now so unkind

All laughter dormant,
  children gone

The days too short,
  the nights too long

But words stay with me
  always will

Through light and dark
  inscription fills

If meaning suffers
  intents the same

New flowers distant
  old fragrance claimed

But memories call
  then call again

And often stay
  my dearest friends

The white smoke rises
  but just a whiff

These words as given
—my greatest gift

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2022
Write,
like you don’t need the money
Sing,
like you’ll never be heard
Live,
like the moment is ending
Love,
like a baby’s first word

(Dreamsleep: April 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2020
Give it back to the night,
give it back to the day

Give it back to the moment,
where time goes to pray

Give it back to the future,
give it back to the past

Give it up to the present
—forever to last

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Sep 2023
Laura returned in a dream tonight
to remind me of who I was
Leading me toward a waxing moon
she sang of hope and love
Pulling me close she kissed my lips
as her breath refilled my soul
Giving me back unto myself
—with a joy that time had stole

( To My Muse — Laura Nyro: September, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2021
The words merely borrowed,
to then juxtapose

Each Poet the debtor,
whose lender forgoes

All lines duly tendered,
with verses inured

The beauty, the order
—new feelings assured

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
You flew in on a
  wish

And left on a broken
  dream

Bringing what I never
  wanted

Taking what I never
  had

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2022
Do you find yourself
under those stones that you’ve thrown
Pummeled with self-hatred
forever alone

Looking up in delirium
Goliath parades
Blinding your vision
—a gravesite charade

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2018
Stopping just short of judgment,
  his mind took a leap

Whose soul rose as substance
  now ready to speak

Words before never uttered
  or spoken in vain

This acknowledgement followed
  crying out in refrain…

“The joy in the brotherhood
   all torment by choice

“To share in celebration,
   we alone can’t rejoice

“The critic inside us
   the judger of sins

“Is best left in silence
   till it targets within”

As time will remind us,
  and these words will recall

All biting reprisal
  —the coward’s downfall

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2020
Closeted belief…
atheist’s disguise

Slings and arrows,
boomerang’s surprise

Empty of graces,
desperate to fill

Shot through the heart
—their spirits to ****

(Noon Mass: St. Thomas of Villanova Chapel, February, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Stopping just short of judgment,
  his mind took a leap

Whose soul rose as substance,
  now ready to speak

Words before never uttered,
  or spoken in vain

This acknowledgement followed,
  crying out in refrain…

“The joy in the brotherhood
   all torment by choice

“To share in celebration,
   we alone can’t rejoice

“The critic inside us,
   the judger of sins

“Is best left in silence,
   till it targets within”

As time will remind us,
  and these words will recall

All biting reprisal
  —the coward’s downfall

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
Unto a rose,
flower so sweet

Petals like velvet,
fragrance so deep

Up through the concrete,
lining many a field

Its glorious blossom
love’s welcome—revealed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2019
Victory is a song unwritten,
whose words beget the score

With truth in play, all time relayed,
past battles, future wars

Yesterday winless, tomorrow tied,
the moment zero sum

The hour prescient, each second dear
—glory still unsung

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2019)
A higher
but hidden presence
than God
Surrounds his nature
eternity’s
pod

Existing over
and deep
within
Its seminal essence
forever
begins

Averse to our choosing
and freedom
blind
Professing nothing
but itself
in kind

And blacker
than the
blackest hole
Obverting time
remains
— untold

(Villanova University: May, 2025)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Scientific Discovery…
but one grand paradox

The Spacetime Continuum
  —contradiction defined

(Greensboro North Carolina: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2016
You can listen with hope,
  or listen in pain

But listen you shall,
  as my words will explain

“You were left in a tree trunk,
  neither hollow nor full

With a decision impending,
  a test of your will

Your words will define,
  what you praise or deny

Will they now come together,
  in the truth or a lie
  
Do you burrow on blindly,
  or tunnel beyond

What your comfort will dictate,
  what the blackness desponds

One choice lands in darkness,
  one reaches for light

My tracks through the shadows,
  your fear cannot light

It’s down to that moment,
  one last choice that defines

Will your soul choose redemption,
—or stay hidden unrhymed”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2017
The question outliving the answer,
  the chosen—their verdict was death

The prophecy destroying the prophet,
religion—its God to reject

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2019
The question outliving the answer,
  the chosen—their verdict was death

The prophecy destroying the prophet,
religion—its God to reject

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2022
Not welcoming death
but befriending its shadow
whose blanket I wear
in this carrying wind

The brother to life
who spawned all existence
his eyes are my wings
—flying into the night

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2020
Decisions that last forever…
choices made every day

To commit with our hearts,
our heads in the wind

—the difference for Poets to say

(St. Mary’s Montana: August, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2024
Is the Oracle wise
the Buddha fat
or the Great
Niagara wet
Description wanes
where titan’s reign
as words are left
to falter
And blow upwind
against the grain
in messages
— sublime

(The New Room: December, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2022
The clearer the speech
the deeper its woven
A spinning wheel threaded
—looming divine

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2021
In the currency of dreams
—you can never make change

(Dreamsleep: January, 2021)
Downwind
of my perception
Upwind
before the fall
Immune
in my protection
From dullards
at the mall

The past
remains in focus
The future
but a myth
My words
fall out of judgment
Each phrasing
to enrich

To read
with understanding
To hear
beyond the din
To feel
beyond the senses
To love
beyond the rim

Released
without containment
On wings
not leased or loaned
Into
the inner sanctums
With time
— Goliath’s stone

(The New Room: June, 2025)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2019
She promised me tomorrow,
  stealing all my yesterdays

A future blackened with her lies
—the present gone astray

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2024
Owning
the memories
of the years
without me

I wonder
if your thoughts
ever drift
toward mine

Your distance
endemic
a broken
connection

Remembering
moments
our hearts
— intertwined

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)
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