Kurt Philip Behm

First Destiny Called (+2)

Laid with words

   the writers stone

A fortress was columned

my only real home

 

The poetry safe

as it stammered and tried

As my feelings unbridled

from the outsiders lies

 

Each year added substance

to this home of the verse

My thoughts never silenced

or my feelings there terse

 

All that’s needed to go there

blind captured belief

All that’s needed to know

is that time is the thief

 

My vision unshaken

from this chair with two wheels

The advice from the experts

to wither and yield

 

But my place more than sacred

an invincible throne

Independent of body

times seed now unsown

 

And the moment before

I take my last breath

I will enter forever

where before I had left

 

The trumpets will sound

as immortality calls

To that space then my refuge

the sum of it all

 

As the memories chase reason

the facts storm again

But the tents of my solitude

keep out their wind

 

For generations that follow

and their children that ask

This place I now dwell in

is for all hard and fast

 

Just believe in its message

and its fortune to change

Just believe in transcendence

with all things the same

 

Until the day that that final

trumpet may blow

And everything seen

is all there’s to know

 

Your message then solid

as the door opens wide

And those things that are yours

to the heavens arrive

 

And the joy that you feel

thinking back on it all

From that place deep inside

—where first destiny called

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

 

 

Without The Other

 

Life without death

  joy without pain

 

No reference, no bearing,

   no loss—no gain

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

 

 

After Midnight

 

After Midnight

The narcissists fall

After Midnight

A new lyric calls

 

After Midnight

The bugles will blow

After Midnight

There’s more left to know

 

After Midnight

The lizards collect

After Midnight

All tales to reflect

 

After Midnight

The ticking won’t stop

After Midnight

The bottom has topped

 

After Midnight

A cancerous tome

After Midnight

Malignancy known

 

After Midnight

Betray and deceive

After Midnight

Alone in the siege

 

After Midnight

All footsteps fall deaf

After Midnight

Last palate uncleft

 

After Midnight

New story to front

After Midnight

A star for the dunce

 

After Midnight

The comets rebel

After Midnight

The coroners yell

 

After Midnight

A suit made of steel

After Midnight

Its melting reveals

 

After Midnight

The plain and the slack

After Midnight

There’s no turning back

 

After Midnight

A sacred oath sworn

After Midnight

All memory forlorn

 

After Midnight

The wheels bend and turn

After Midnight

Lost vision relearns

 

After Midnight

False birth is stillborn

After Midnight

Old vestments are torn

 

After Midnight

The here and the now

After Midnight

That one sacred cow

 

After Midnight

Past-Future unseen

After Midnight

—new eyes that believe

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)