My Past Reclaimed



I didn’t know it at the time,
but my misspent youth was planned

The training ground for what I’d write,
then hard to understand

The many schools, the teachers chides,
expulsions my reward

Postgraduate work for future truth,
all voices untoward

The risks were high, survival mined,
Shangi-La, a vagrant’s room

My pen disclaimed, all actions shamed,
flat broke one afternoon

From the diner’s window I heard the song
that turned my life around

As Gregg Allman sang ‘Melissa,’
my true destiny was found

And today I harbor no regrets,
there’s no one left to blame

As I write the words for me hard one
—my sinful past reclaimed

(Strafford Pennsylvania: July, 2019)
   ‘Thank You, Gregg—I Miss You’
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Submitted by KurtPhilipBehm on July 14, 2019

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
20

Quick analysis:

Scheme XA XA XB XB XX CX XD XD XX XC XX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 692
Words 119
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Kurt Philip Behm

Longtime writer with twelve books in publication. Three of them Poetry. : The Death Of The Playground : The Sword Of Ichiban : Searching For Crazy Horse : Darkening Sun : An Anthology Of Perception-Vol's 1 & 2 : After Midnight : Sammy And Bumpers : The Fall City Mandate : Revenge Along The War Trail : Death from The Sky more…

All Kurt Philip Behm poems | Kurt Philip Behm Books

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