Did you make the moment,

did the moment make you

 

Did you give truth a name

—time forever renewed

 

(Dreamsleep: March 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

Transcending jazz,

 folk and rock,

 blues master’s stop and bow

 

Winwood standing

far above,

we ask not why—but how

 

(Watching The Master On AXS: March, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

To not appease the critics,

success within our grasp

The charlatans of written words,

venom of the asp

 

They bury deep inside their dens,

ordained iconoclasts

 Passing judgment, casting blame

—on what they fear might last

 

(To T.R.’s ‘Man In The Arena’ March, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

Don’t make things lighter

by clipping your wings

The jet stream is calling,

 truth in the wind

 

Drop the excuses,

there’re reasons to blame

You can’t kill the darkness

—banning the flame

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

The closer we get to yesterday,

the farther away I feel

 

The longer you stay within my reach,

the more distant I become

 

Memory lane a withering dream

from a time the past has claimed

 

Trading those things I used to want

—for what tomorrow brings

 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: March, 2021)

Disbursing our lives in a state of malaise,

scars become currency

—for debts still unpaid

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

Judging you by what you wear

or by the car you drive

the words forever hollow

whose bees have left the hive

Taking stock while looking back

through scarlet colored glass

the vision false, the judgment worse

its memory to outlast

Forming all opinion

by what is wrapped or clad

deception in the present sense 

the view less good than bad

Stepping back while looking in

my eyes take off their shield

to see much deeper than before

—my prejudice to yield

 

(The New Room: March, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

Stimulus check…

blood diamond

from a failed November,

Payment

to a dark tomorrow,

Bribery

—for a future stole

 

(Dreamsleep November, 2020)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

The voice of my enemy,

the loudest of truths

 

With death as the arbiter

—to win or to lose

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

If we can’t tell stories

about our past

—the future stays untold

 

If judged by standards

out of time

—the fault beyond control

 

Our history always

both good and bad

—correction on the rise

 

What happened, happened,

as time rolls on

—and yesterday reminds

 

(Independence Square Philadelphia: March, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm