Reaching For Xanadu

Kurt Philip Behm

Skeletons rule the attic,

 rooks have left the board

emptiness I can’t explain,

darkness untoward

 

Lapses in my memory,

lyrics left unsung

chasing all those things I’m not,

orphan on the run

 

Monday turns to Thursday,

Tuesday, Wednesday lost

time on fire, burning fast,

sanity the cost

 

One last chance for freedom,

pathway to the cliff

to jump into my deepest fear

—or sink in this abyss

 

(The New Room: February, 2022)

 

 

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Comments +

Comments5

  • Laura🌻

    Kurt,

    Just left MSK…turned on my iPhone…and there’s your posting which I’ve just read. Another amazing, but necessary write…with heartbreaking effects.
    I’m thankful for your shares because it brings to the forefront what really matters in the insane world of ours. Our personal situation can’t compare to what’s happening.

    Laura🌻

  • Kurt Philip Behm

    Thanks, I hope you got good news.

    • Laura🌻

      You’re most welcome.
      And let’s hope we don’t
      ‘sink in this abyss’ .🙏🏻

    • Christina8

      Just an excellent, stirring, well written poem! Wonderful Kurt!

    • L. B. Mek

      were it not
      for our self-stifling chains
      binding our poetic dreams
      to mere mortal streams
      than, pure poetry's
      innate river's
      of limitless elemental essence
      of interdimensional, intergalactic creativity
      and irrespective
      of Time, Trend or Tangibility's
      restraints;
      what poetic gaiety
      would our words contain..
      were we Truly, free
      to chase after Coleridge's Xanadu, mirage realms
      or Shelley's Skylark, of fleeting poetic expression
      what wondrous imagination
      we could distil and share
      with this
      our beleaguered and stunted world...
      but whilst, one of us
      still chooses
      'To Reach'
      like you, dear Kurt
      can we not all, grip
      your tailcoat
      and strive, to soar
      within Poetry's, most
      instinctive peak clouds
      of 'Wordsworthian or egotistical sublime'...

    • Kurt Philip Behm

      Humbled...thanks LB.



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