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Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2022
Blood upon the keyboards
harmonicas in flight
Chasing notes across the score
horns that greet the night

Eighty eight’s to hemorrhage
reeds that bend and break
Music dying then reborn
—trumpeting our fate

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2020
Letter to letter once estranged,
they mate in open air

Copulants of a thought unloved,
vowels conceived in pairs

An alphabetic ****,
the first word falls in place

Darkness changing into light
—all silence to replace

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
Love regrets,
promises return,
comets in mourning
—meteors burn

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)
“Poke the bear
you get the claws
Chase the shark
you get the jaws”

With each lie
foundations crack
A friend once hurt
your soul left wracked

Timeless rules
do still apply
Where you can run
but never hide

Truth outdates
the oldest Sage
With us its servant
— time its slave

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2018
Make all of your life a prayer
  put all of your words into song

Take heart in those lyrics still to be sung
  —before the music forever is gone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)
     'From The Book Of Prayers'
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2019
Never become a footnote
  —to a history lost and gone

(Dreamsleep: June, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2022
Left or right
the noise drones on

Distractions prized,
the message gone

What’s right is right
unless it’s left

The truth beguiled
—our soul’s bereft

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
2 + 2 - 4 = Freedom

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
2 + 2 – 4 = Freedom
Black + White – Gray = Vision
He + She – Them = Anguish
Yes + No – Doubt = Prescience

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2022
Unlike the first Revolution…
this time we have to take America
back from within
Like drug and alcohol addiction
we need detox
and rehabilitation
The traitors and despoilers left
to wither and die
Too many have sacrificed
for the freedoms we take for granted
to abdicate our responsibility
to the lunatic fringe

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2023
People in love
say many things
only lovers understand
Hearing voices
ringing bells
that time cannot command
People in love
go hand in hand
to course the Milky Way
Promises made
as joy unlocks
—forever and a day

(The New Room: July, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
When time overcomes memory,
and vision retracts

The past sits in judgment,
its verdict exact

With yesterday’s reason,
tomorrow to blame

All hope left in ashes
—truth mourning the flame

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)
An enigma
wrapped in mystery
covered in secrets
risking hell
A legend
from the ages
bereft of sages
casting spells
The message
nondescriptive
in ephemera
laden tongues
Lucy in the sky
bejeweling
screaming deafness
— silence won

(Dreamsleep: April, 2024)
I did
I will
I can’t
I don’t

I have
I shall
I shan’t
—I won’t

(Dreamsleep: January, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2022
Drowning in whisky,
drunkard of time
Toasting the losers
—dying unrhymed

(McGarvey’s Saloon-Annapolis: June, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
A man clad in mystery,
history would learn

His face on the mountain,
immortality earned

A man from tomorrow,
reliving today

Intrepidly fated
—truth on display


(Crazy Horse Monument: May, 2008)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2020
The rusting of years,
the flavor of time

Calling you back
—-patina unrhymed

(Villanova Train Station: January, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2018
The greatest of men
  he bled the truth,
  his wounds for all to share

A symbol relived
  a life unspoiled,
  courage all too rare

The towering hawk
  the thundering storm,
  hailstones mark the way

A moment in time
  a vision embraced
   —his name the children pray

(Plane From Detroit: August 21, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2016
(From 'Searching For Crazy Horse' Published in 2011)

Crazy Horse's final words to me as our search ended....


“My son, you can search,
  but without your vision it’s hopeless

Its message I saw before you
  so very long ago

You have now searched the heights
  and the depths of its border

Finally living inside it,
  separate no longer from yourself

You were called by the wind
  to climb and go higher

Your soul casting no shadow,
  nothing blocked from your sight

That which keeps you from seeing
  is no longer inside you

What stays with you now lives
  beyond a thousand goodbyes

Your name has been added,
  and your place is now vacant

The pipe sits ready in council
  for when your time will come

With one foot in this land,
  you step beyond with the other

And in my Father’s lodge, all speak
your new name
          .... ‘Wana Hin Gle’
                      (He Who Happens Now)

This name that I give you  
  will protect and sustain you

Guarding you, and you alone,
  from the lack of yourself

Others may hate,
  and may even hunt you

Killing only what they fear,
  while making you strong

Rest easy, my son, for you’ve
  seen them in passing

Their blind spot in eternity
  not worthy of your eye

You no longer need my Spirit
  or my words to console you

The substance of your vision
  is now released and set free”
Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2022
Waking every day
finding part of me behind
The loom threadbare and empty
no yarn there left to find

Coming apart in pieces
stitches lose their hem
Expectations falling fast
inching toward the end

Daylight into darkness
bespoken twill in threads
Voices used to mend and fit
silenced, like the dead

Sleeping with the remnants
dreams of memories lost
Desperations patchwork quilt
—blanketing the cost

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2016
The shortest road
  to emotion,
  —is tears

(Philadelphia Pennsylvania: March, 1977)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2018
My words the result
  of the times I’ve lived
  not a classroom exercise

My feelings all paid
  with the blood of my fears
  not a rambling diatribe

My trail has been lined
  with each tear and misstep
  to mark the way ahead

My life a memory
  telling a tale
   —whose direction my soul has led

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Those most desperate among us,
  must learn to cry alone

Themselves regained through tears of pain
  —to mark their pathway home

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2023
We’ve abused our great freedoms
to reap the results
with school and church shootings
hate speech a new cult  

No respect for the flag
or sacrifice made
ignoring our veterans
despoiling their graves  

Our streets wait in ambush
where the enemy hides
to prowl in a wasteland
where evil decides  

The constitution a weapon
to pervert and inflict
traitorous courts
with laws nondescript  

And blindly we run
(toward the cliff)
greed our marching song
narcissism the battle cry
—America is gone    

(Ardmore Pennsylvania: April, 2023)
Soulless
Dissected
A heart turning back
Jilted
Rejected
Last stab in the back
Mourning
New morning
The day unatoned
Nighttime
The verdict
Whose sentence disowns
Lovers
And lizards
The swamp but the same
Feeding
On hunger
Starvation the game
Cursing
each blessing
with heartache reset
Dying
While living
— new tears wait unwept

(The New Room: January, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2018
Creating the future
  by killing the past

Techno Gomorrah
—where nothing can last

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm May 2021
Life is most visible
in its imperfections

Cracks in the hourglass
—us wanting more

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2021
Spacetime but emergent,
the string on nature’s kite

Reeling in a looming giant
—beyond both day and night

(Amtrak R5: July, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
Memories of memories,
  illusions called the past

Their structure self deceptive,
  inside our minds ill cast

Memories of uncertainty,
  and memories still to come

Embedded in our consciousness
  —this moment zero sum

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2022
Time in degrees,
degrees of time
the horse or the cart,
position sublime

Hours sans minutes,
seconds besieged
mirage of attachment
—horizon to free

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2020
Ladybugs
outline the memory of my childhood,
marking the pathway of my approach

Orange and black
like Halloween candy corn,
tempting diversion—they lure to encroach

(The New Room: November, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2016
Romancing reality,
  the poet said...

“I get paid for that
  I get out of bed”

With words that hover,
  and words that rhyme

Truth undercover,
—temptation blind

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2022
No time for the memories,
no time to refrain
No time for the questions,
as answers proclaim
No time for the yearnings,
regret hovers close
No time for new learning
—all time but a ghost

(Dreamsleep: December, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2020
Capsules of time…
no beginning or end

The view from without,
the view from within

Defining the space,
transporting the hours

Moment by moment
—again and again

(Haverford College: October, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2021
Disbursing our lives in a state of malaise,
scars become currency
—for debts still unpaid

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2020
Verbal contracts…
  commerce of indemnity

Trading intention
—marketplace sublime

(Dreamsleep: February, 2020)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2020
Repeating on and on without changing,
the boredom settled in

Lost in endless repetition,
ten miles South of what might have been

A broken record skipping, skipping,
the groundhog’s prediction thin

Burrowing out the same old hole
—ten miles South of what might have been

(Dreamsleep: December, 2020)
The thing
about rhyme
is you can’t help
but read it

The glue
in the verbiage
whose tonic
is needed

Uniting
each line
with the magic
of sound

Melding the
moment
as phrases
— surround

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)


https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/05/24/poem-tennis/#google_vignette
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2021
Like water…
fear seeks its own level
Rich or poor
it wades through our consciousness
Driving us inward
toward sirens of darkness
Shrilling the moment
—with lyres of doubt

(Hereford Inlet: December, 2021)
If the Rockies
don’t speak to you ...
never return

The quiet their
rejection
— a silent goodbye

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2021
Over parenting…
the child undone

A cardinal sin
—lost millennium

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2018
Thank you for the poetry Lord,
  thank you for the verse

Thank you for the words that play
   and on my fields converse

Thank you for the feelings
  letting others join in song

But thank you most for reaching down
  —and guiding me along

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)
     From 'The Book Of Prayers'
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2016
Thank you for the confusion Lord,
  — and thank you for the doubt

Thank you for all those unsure moments,
  — when I could neither whisper nor shout

Thank you for the people Lord,
  — those who loved me or hated in vain

But thank you most for the girl I wed,
  — the one who took away my pain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2019
The Siren of fate
  lures you onto the rocks

Her beauty enticing
  while masking what’s not

A shipwreck of horrors
  that’s not what it seems

Luring you onward
  away from your dreams

A phantom discovery
  a fool’s masquerade

Its promising temptress
  an ill mannered charade

And once you discover
  your mortality is near

You flail and you panic
  while sinking in fear

The distance you’ve traveled
  at a liars demand

Weighs heavy as you manage
  one last spoken command

Shouting out to your comrades
   to stay where they are

Searching only within
  —for that beckoning star

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Apr 2019
What describes a Poet,
  let me count the ways

To once describe a morning,
  emerging through the haze

What describes a season,
  its leaves from green to brown

What describes a heartbeat,
  when your lover can’t be found

What describes a reason,
  with excuses cast away

What describes a child’s laugh,
  joyous on display

What describes a place called home,
  to a soldier sent to war

And what describes that final breath
  —to an old man wanting more

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)
Kurt Philip Behm Feb 2018
Did you build that open portal,
  one to leave upon

One that takes you back inside,
   one that plays your songs

Will your exit be an entry,
  to that place you’ve always been

Will tomorrow be the past in drag
—as you shed that final skin

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2019
Beyond genius
  the spirit flies
Beyond genius
  the mood decries
Beyond genius
  no courses rowed
Beyond genius
  all time disowned
Beyond genius
  the map refolds
Beyond genius
   a world untold
Beyond genius
  the critics gasp
Beyond genius
   no serpent asp
Beyond genius
  the telling stops
Beyond genius
  no on—then off
Beyond genius
  all sight and sound
Beyond genius
  the square is round
Beyond genius
  no lies are told
Beyond genius
  what’s new is old
Beyond genius
  the heavens sing
Beyond genius
  —that final thing

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2015)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2019
What know ye of the truth,
that final window left to close

Who calls thee to its breast,
a suckled vision
—heaven shown

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)
Kurt Philip Behm Jul 2018
Who invented the primordial kiss,
  who embraced that first hug

Who was the first to say “I Love You”
  —who had that first broken heart

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2018)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2019
From deep in the shadows of Tin Pan Alley,
the Sage called out my name

With a voice that haunted and eyes concealed
—she made her only claim

(New York City: West 28th Street- March 2017)
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