Tag Archives: existentialism

Wet Candy

Just light interrupted,
drawing uncrossable borders,
leaving only the essence of me,
punch-drunk and absent definition.

I seek a shape uncorrupted,
shielded from decay by order,
but find no truth I could be,
just light interrupted.

Pursuing new ambitions,
I detail the things I am not,
navigating myself through empty space
drawing uncrossable borders.

Decisions brittle with structure,
see the world pruned,
until most of it has fallen away,
leaving only the essence of me.

Now tasting this form,
unexpected variables emerge;
I am this fleeting sweetness, still
punch-drunk and absent definition.

The Quiet

We engineer realities sterile and clear behind closed eyes.
The day cast aside, night is near behind closed eyes.

Fleeting words, ideas not bound by definition.
The shape of unseen worlds appear behind closed eyes.

Forged hands balled in fists swinging in fruitless fits.
Regret building horrors to fear behind closed eyes.

Destinations escape through cracked sidewalks.
Roots stretch deep to interfere behind closed eyes.

Held breath is all that remains for us to fill our lives.
The gait of days stagger like years behind closed eyes.

Unreality, the should be, the could be, permeate.
Voices sharp enough to sear behind closed eyes.

Reflections dissolve, yielding to introspection.
Ourselves to ourselves leer behind closed eyes.

Truth grown monstrous enough to obscure reality.
Comfort stirs in silent tears behind closed eyes.

Life, the now of it, stands opposed to our dreams.
Defiant, we refuse to disappear behind closed eyes.

Impermanence endures, outlasting immortality,
I, Brendon, linger, always here behind closed eyes.

40 Winks

This now that is forever happens in a blink
though the forever of it pulls harder than time
It rises, lives bombastic, and falls in a wink.

Once again the time taken from me becomes mine,
where I can make great distances out of old dreams,
though the forever of it pulls harder than time.

Still, the life I have is fed full against the seams,
until who I am expands past recognition,
where I can make great distances out of old dreams.

Soon, these wants are not desires but premonition,
as I keep finding reasons to invest in me,
until who I am expands past recognition.

I need only define what angle and degree,
a mere in-between amongst a forest of change,
as I keep finding reasons to invest in me.

Sometimes, the times will distort in ways that are deranged,
this now that is forever happens in a blink,
a mere in-between amongst a forest of change.
It rises, lives bombastic, and falls in a wink.

I Implore

The horizon feels too strange,
the place of it, too alien for destiny.
A haze of guile undulating like waves,
so that as I look upon that distant goal,
my eyes are strained to hold it down,
yet still – I can’t make sense of it,

can you?

I’ve moved so little,
but I know it has moved against me,
together we both are changed,
though surely the journey is lost;
that future stalled while the horizon continues,
unmoved by my confusion,
taking measured steps long past my ramblings.
I cannot hope to keep up,

can you?

The static landscape envelopes me,
in a skyless desert without purpose,
where neither direction nor pace matter.
The horizon, stranger still,
keeps running towards a pointless end,
Sometimes – I swear I hear it screaming,

can you?

Collapse

The harm was not in the fall.
No, the drawl of tumbling
felt like a bow string released
and when it had ceased, humbling.

Pain was the pull from behind;
where my mind, ensnared in knots,
like a tangled quagmire drogue,
the last threads gone rogue in thought.

Though the relief was also strong,
it set wrong, muddled with guilt.
How could the cost of peace be
all of the things we had built?

Tomorrow (Video)

This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke

Cthulhu (Video)

This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke

Tourist

Visiting a place is not being there,
it is only sight and sound –
drawn curtains
a polished candelabra.

You see in lists and itineraries,
perspective narrowed
to what such places concede freely,
satisfying curious wanderers;
souls ravaged like refugees,
without the time or patience to settle
down.

A distant home that feels like asylum,
pending and uncertain.
All virtues lost,
yet to be found.

You can feel authenticity crisp in
the air.

You can’t grasp it,
though it is there –
it is there,
left only with pictures awash in venom;
that resolve like troubled thoughts,
dying after a sober night’s sleep.

Visiting a place is not being there.

Being there requires sacrifice.
It requires the hint of escape on the horizon,
silhouetting all the shapes visitors ignore;
seeing those shadows and loving them,
for how they embrace the light.

Video

The Dirt (Video)

This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke