The back room

of creation

where much of life

is spent

 

Victim to

the waiting game

where doldrums

reinvent

 

All dressed up

and ready

with nowhere

clear to go

 

Waiting for

that flash of light

to put me

— in the know

 

*****

 

Reality Preying

 

Not killing

time

Time killing

him

The hourglass

drains

As life

grows thin

 

Slaying the

dragon

A fantasy

still

Reality

preying

On folly

— distilled

 

*****

 

 

Stepping Out

 

More than a

lifetime

Unmeasured

by years

Enlightenment

prospers

No doubting

or fear

 

Stepping out

of the circle

And into the

light

Dimension

is truant

With reference

— contrite

 

*****

 

One Slip

 

Life

on the edge

where finality

threatens

Hope

meets disaster

both tightening

their grip

 

Never

look down

with redemption

above you

One slip

and the promise

 of glory

— submits

 

*****

 

 

Darkness Retreating

 

Writing

to a standard

new standards

are drawn

Light

disinfecting

a bevy

of wrongs

 

Writing

to a standard

the truth

is upheld

Darkness

retreating

deception

— expelled

 

*****

 

To Bask In Its Presence

 

Writers

have a double edged

courtship with time

Cutting both ways

past and future

defined

 

But the moment’s

unwritten

unspoken unrhymed

To bask in its

presence

— you live it sublime

 

(The New Room: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s for the losers

what’s for those lost

 out of the spotlight

alone in the frost

 

What’s for those orphaned

from acceptance and fame

who live out their lyrics

— in search of a name

 

*****

 

Baby Steps

 

It’s amazing the things

you think you can still do

once you’re really too old to do them

 

It’s amazing the excuses

you cling to with dear life

 the facts dead set against them

 

With each new passing day

your vision conforms

to the fantasy growing inside you

 

Until time runs its course

with the hourglass dry

 and set free — baby steps in the queue

 

*****

 

Prescience Surrounds

 

Happening — slow

remembering — fast

Time’s rearview mirror

spins life in a flash

 

This minute in real time

the past is abridged

Those days in between

neither one will forgive

 

With every step forward

there’s two taken back

Where fate trails behind you

and poised to attack

 

Until the epiphany

of prescience surrounds

And frees you from both

— in this moment profound

 

*****

 

Arteries Free

 

An angering hemorrhage

of violence old

America needing

a tourniquet bold

 

A triage in process

new choices to make

To save what is reasoned

and lessen its fate

 

Defending each stitch

with sutures retained

No bandage is needed

when blood is contained

 

Once over the trauma

there’s hope in the wind

Its arteries free

— of the deadliest sin

 

*****

 

L’ Optique

 

Away from the

darkness

not into

the light

 

A glass when

refilled

halfway up

‘is what might …’

 

What might be

half empty

what might be

half full

 

One thing

or the other

a parallax

— lull

 

*****

 

 

A Reminder

                                                                                         

Tomorrow’s poem …

it dwells among us

Like the shadow

of a statue

Unsculpted

in the mist

 

Tomorrow’s poem …

implanted glory

That hides in futures

past unseen

A reminder of what

— we’re yet to know

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neither Here Nor There

 

Caught

in transition

Straddling

the line

Neither

here nor there

Truant

to define

 

Change

to mark my entry

Change

to bid my leave

Almost here

almost there

Living

— in between

 

*****

 

In The Rafters

 

Alone

he resides

in his fortress

Embittered

and humbled

by life

 

With four

darkened walls

to surround him

A kingdom

of sorrow

and blight

 

Self-pity

betroths

and becomes him

Engaged

to his torment

and pain

 

And hope

but a fleeting

lost notion

That hides

in the rafters

— unclaimed

 

*****

 

 

The Myth

 

Destroying tomorrow

in search of today

The myth in abeyance

— where present I pray

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

False Words

 

With more than

one side to a story

Someone

is obviously lying

 

False words to defend

what at best is pretend

Truth as the victim

— there is no denying

 

*****

 

Three Words

 

The smile of a baby

the sound of goodbye

a moment endearing

a deepening sigh

 

Those things that we treasure

and some that we don’t

wrapped often together

in souring notes

 

There’s pain in the leaving

but joy that’s implied

upon your returning

three words in reply

 

A door shuts behind you

where love calls your name

and all through the wasteland

 — there kindle’s your flame

 

*****

 

Flowing Under

 

Rejecting the past

I found a way forward

My exit route open

all roads pointing East

 

Yesterday frozen

today flowing under

The cold and the barren

— whose waters run deep

 

*****

 

Lost & Missing

 

Knowing enough

to feel I’m right

But not enough

to know I’m wrong

Caught in the distance

of misdirection

Lost and missing

— a world gone wrong

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

United Natives of America 7th generation uprisings.
March 24, 2018

A Lakota Mothers Prayer
(From: Searching For Crazy Horse)
________________________
‘Wana Hin Gle’ the Lakota call me,
‘Wana Hin Gle’ my given name
‘He Who Happens Now,’ the drum beat has found me,
reaching into this moment beyond glory and fame
As ‘Wana Hin Gle,’ my spirit has wandered,
as ‘Wana Hin Gle,’ my ancestors call
The questions dissolve, as The Great Mystery beckons,
the campfire eternal, the chanting enthralls
“Wana Hin Gle,” my Mother calls proudly,
“your horse is now ready, your shield fixed with bone
Off into the prairie you must ride in the twilight,
the People will dance until their son returns home
Wana Hin Gle, you must now happen quickly,
the buffalo are all captive, starvation allowed
Your eyes look upon the great Wakan Tanka,
whose absence has shamed us, who once were so proud
As the great Tasunka Witko who traveled before you,
you must wait for your horse to come out of the lake
Great Mother River and Great Mountain Father,
to your will they entrust what The People forsake
Your vision must suffer, the babies still cry,
the cold through the tent flaps, all future in blight
You must leave us now, but leave us in darkness,
for when you return, a new vision will burn bright
You will ride to the top of the ‘Pass Of The Bears,’
ask the Grizzly, our brother, if the demon still preys
If it does, you must kill it, for this time and always,
it has hovered above us keeping spirits away
The White Horse will take you from the lake to the mountain,
and the stallion will sprout wings with its hooves fiery hot
You will trample this demon and burn him before you,
the smoke will then signal of what he is not
Wana Hin Gle, my son; the time is for going,
your vision awaits, past-futures on hold
The Medicine Woman is locked deep inside you,
your People die waiting—the young and the old”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)
Copyright © Kurt Philip Behm | Year Posted 2018

Hope Redeemed

 

Moving

from one side

of my pain

to the other

 

Relief

is denied

new anguish

uncovered

 

To live

in the present

and torture

my dreams

 

The end

now is welcomed

where hope

— may redeem

 

*****

 

Harmony Pure

 

The music

of verse

when left

unrehearsed

Cries out

from within

One voice

 to begin

 

It starts

with an echo

left buried

inside

That looks

for an exit

no longer

to hide

 

To reshape

the words

with a

harmony pure

Exalting

the heavens

in melody’s

— lure

 

*****

Death Reminds

 

Self-anointed

dreamer

Timothy Treadwell

crossed the line

That reason

draws before us

to ignore it

death reminds

That time

is in its favor

with every step

we take

To trespass

nature’s balance

is to tempt

— the jaws of fate

 

*****

 

Writing More

 

I write in the wild

away from the crowd

The flight of an eagle

intrepid and proud

 

I cover my footsteps

so others stay back

Alive in each moment

the future attacked

To open the cosmos

and close the back door

Venturing inward

— the pathway secured

 

*****

 

Om

 

Beyond this place

a dragon

Outside your reach

it spoils

Where Satan hides

his demons

And memory

recoils

 

There’s one remote

oasis

Within this world

of pain

That drowns

the serpent’s fire

Its mantra

— in refrain

 

*****

 

Rest In Peace

 

I guess I won

I outlived them all

My critics and pundits

 buried et all

 

Their ire and praises

sleep in the ground

Their target still breathing

— words to expound

 

*****

 

The Moment Reborn

 

Everybody

has to be somewhere

Everyone

lives self-proclaimed

Every endowment

a moment reborn

Every time

— every day

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2026)