If being and the world
are one and the same
Then thinking and thoughts
are together to name
With freedom and consciousness
semantically fused
All judgment and will
—symbiotically cued
(Baldwin School: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Toll-Free
Verse is but a vehicle
to where my words are bound
The cargo much more precious
than structure that surrounds
The driving force empowered,
hands firm upon the wheel
The road to ever open up
—with all I say and feel
(St. David’s Pennsylvania: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Cross Currents
If we could touch time
or taste a new dream
Awareness exploding,
beyond the extreme
To see every fragrance
or hear every wile
Our senses emboldened
—as memory smiles
(St. David’s Pennsylvania: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Hope’s Diamond
Not silver,
not platinum,
and surely not gold
A mind
eager to learn,
something else to behold
More treasured
in essence,
than riches untold
Where a Newton
or Einstein
—begin to unfold
(St. David’s Pennsylvania: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
The Link
Neurotechnology,
a gift or a bane
With thoughts simply neurons,
case structure our brains
Is humanity destined
to merely plug in
Will all beauty and truth
be a programmer’s whim
And what of our history
that starts to rewrite
Will all paradox suffer,
conversation contrite
From Plato to Sartre,
one thing is the same
The essence of man
—will a mystery remain
(St. David’s Pennsylvania: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
In Poverty’s Name
How do you lay off a writer…
unemployment assured
In labored obscurity,
his fortune unscored
How do you invest in a future
that’s devalued today
When checks never balance
—and words will not pay
(The New Room: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Graves Of Our Fathers
The Black Hills are crying,
our Mother forsaken
Enemy boot prints
where moccasins claim
To live just to die
in noble futility
All drums beat in silence
—He Sapa in shame
(Pine Ridge South Dakota: July, 2019)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
To Thine Self
One opinion that matters,
its judgment vouchsafe
Where mountains have melted,
new rivers await
The merit for others,
but truth undenied
Beyond feeling and vision
—exists only I
(The New Room: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Day Turns To Night
A new century waits as the minutes
progress
into hours of vestibular begotten memory
My thoughts being counted although I
resist,
my feelings in service to what’s left behind
The sun and the moon trade in bartered
romance,
each jilting the other as day turns to night
Another year is recorded in the serpentine
past,
what’s seen a mirage—what’s measured retained
(The New Room: March, 2021)
Copyright 2021 Kurt Philip Behm
Ramparts Of Freedom
Are you a servant
to creation’s lord,
every word indentured trope
In towers of despair
each phrase a step
—on the stairs to love and hope
(The New Room: March, 2021)
An Anthology Of Perception 