Sacred in its offering,

christening the past

 

Wellspring of indulgence

—running free at last

 

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

The weight of your words…

by the pound,

by the pain

 

The heaviest memories,

forever

—remain

 

(The New Room: April, 2021)

Kingdom of Devils…

majesty screams,

poisoning the darkness

—virulent dreams

 

(Watching ‘Hemingway’ #3: April, 2021)

 

Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm

Running toward my yesterdays,

the future in pursuit

 

The loosest ends when left undone

—the past my guilt recruits

 

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)

Where you go…

where you’ve been

One port of entry

leads within

Its grand canal

flows North and South

Meridian deep

—to anchor doubt

 

 

(The New Room: April, 2021)

The deepest truth lay undiscovered

in the buried words

Like unfound gold existing only

on a pirate’s map

True value in the search required

to seek and grasp

 

Each phrase a burrowing pen

digs into the readers mine

 Fortune concealing veins of discovery

covered and unknown

Ink running free as the shaft leads inward

—anticipation karat pure

 

(Watching “Hemingway #2: April, 2021)

 

Illusion to who

or better to whom

the window opens shut

An image ingrained

 often betrays

a rose that’s long been plucked

The sun in the moonlight

darkness to burn

a promise made to none

Glory unproud

 its victory profane

—the truth an empty gun

 

(The New Room: April, 2021)

We live in the shadows of your cursed survival

 not being killed when so many of you were

the endless rows of benighted headstones

telling of memories never to be

where you wander among them

pledging your heart to what unrequited

condemns you to time

we walk together through years of separation

the voices of the dead confirming

the tryst of our silence

 forever pretending that a lyric

can be written after the music stops

that its words can be sung by the Angel guardians

of those long departed

and ignoring my devotion

you embrace the rejection of  

the one who never loved you back…

the paramour who condemns you to live in misery

and to live with me

—jilted by death

 

(Watching ‘Hemingway’ On PBS: April, 2021)

Shrinking time down

to a factor of one

The future and past

cancel out zero-sum

The moment, this instant

the only thing real

Unmasking the present

—nothing left to conceal

 

(St. David’s Pennsylvania: April, 2021)

Out there alone,

my thoughts zero-sum…

the coyote’s lonely howl

 

I search for redemption

through cactus and sage…

the silence of an owl

 

Winter births Summer,

its dream comes alive…

the bear announcing Spring

 

In thermal forgiveness,

a following storm

—the hawk now on the wing

 

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)