Author: Kurt Philip Behm

I am a lifelong author with 21 books published to date—one best seller. Much of my writing is about the deception of time and its many disguises. My Poetry 'An Anthology Of Perception,' is now available in four volumes. In addition I have a 175 page Poem 'After Midnight,' that was published in 2014. My Historical Fiction series, 'The Sword Of Ichiban' is now up to volume 8 which is being published this Spring ... Vol #1- The Sword Of Ichiban Vol #2- Darkening Sun Vol #3- Revenge Along The War Trail Vol #4- Death From The Sky Vol #5- Jumping Into the Darkness Vol #6- The Fall City Mandate. Vol #7- Approaching Storm Vol #8- Brothers In Blood One autobiographical novel, 'The Death Of The Playground' a Best Seller, published in 2007. One travel novel, 'Searching For Crazy Horse,' published in 2005, recapping my forty years of motorcycle touring in the American Rocky Mountain West. I have written one Children's Book, 'Sammy & Bumpers' that was published in 2016. All of my books are available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and better Book Stores world wide. Kurt Philip Behm

Traitorous Fortune

Unlocking the vault

invested with pain

 

Its riches long stolen

all value is stained

 

Each bill tells a story

of wantonness greed

 

With truth sold for dollars

whose printing now bleeds

 

Locked up in a winter

of coldness and fear

 

A traitorous fortune

of all you hold dear

 

Its smell tells a story

the mold growing thick

 

Corruption inherent

the air makes you sick

 

Bereft you can’t spend

what you coveted so

 

Before the interment

when sinking so low

 

The cash becomes toxic 

it falls from your hands

 

Its value infected

—insolvent and damned

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

A Wounded Dog …

From the sound of the bugle

in the rush of the wind

The bodies are counted

as grieving begins

 

In the morrow replaying

as blood spills again

The enemy forward

whose countenance grim

 

The courage of many

all acting as one

Their wills long suborted

with fear on the run

 

Till the bugle goes silent

the bugler face down

Last day ill remembered

—a wounded dog howls  

 

(The New Room: June, 2023)

 

Wings Of Light

Why then poetry …

why not prose

the answer prescient

to those who know

 

On wings of light

it comes unsought

abrupting time

on breezes caught

 

Why then poetry …

the world in verse

within whose lines

the Bards converse

 

The oldest questions

age sublime

within its torrent

—within its rhyme

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

To Astrud

A voice that still haunts me

and lives in my dreams

The first time I saw her

a boy of sixteen

 

She lived just a mile

from where I am now

A treasure so hidden

to whose memory I bow

 

The Samba and Rio

she took me along

Yet barely a man

making love to her song

 

My eyes can still close

and return to that beach

where my heart she first captured

—and never released

 

(The Day Astrud Gilberto Died: June 5, 2023)