Words Against Death
WORDS AGAINST DEATH
All the immortals are moral:
Tubercular Kafka spared Treblinka
Lunatic Nietzsche banging a piano to oblivion
Great Tolstoy escaping to a railroad coach,
Gentle Yeats frigid at Ben Bulben.
What lives is a work and that imperfectly:
A thousand bankrupt eyes ferreting the hearts of dead poets
Seeking confirmation for some strange emotion,
Doing the work in the course, being ‘intellectual’,
Satisfying a wicked ambition for
Knowledge or Love or Understanding.
Do these absurd gropings constitute an adequate remembrance?
And if they do, if deep within the heart of some wise reader
There lurks a true Nietzschean spirit,
Will Nietzsche live because of it?
Is Remembrance no matter how deeply touched by love,
Ever Resurrection?
Where K broods over a Ledean body,
Where that daring tightrope walker confuses wise old Karataev
(at Borodino or in the land of Zarathustra)
there the great poets live:
Could it have been,
That Kafka knowing this, sought vainly to preserve himself
When with deep ambivalence he willed his writings
to the flames?
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Related quotes
For All Pianos All Around The World
pi
piano
piano use
piano key
piano roll
piano wire
piano note
pianoforte
piano store
piano pedal
piano bench
piano effect
piano sound
piano string
piano mover
piano maker
piano music
piano action
piano player
piano lesson
piano design
piano course
piano soloist
piano tuning
piano recital
piano replica
piano sonata
piano rhythm
piano sample
piano teacher
piano program
piano concerto
piano repertoire
piano brand name
anno piano twenty twelve
poem by Nicolas Grenier
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Literary Envy
LITERARY ENVY
Not Shakespeare
Not Tolstoy
Not Kafka Joyce Proust
Not Keats Yeats Wordsworth
Not Hopkins Dickinson
Not Whitman
Not I.B. Singer
Not Hemingway
Not Bellow
Not even Philip Roth
Updike or Salinger.
Not any of the writers
Whose work I love and admire.
Not even the living names now
Who will cease to be
Names In Time.
Like the great mass of mankind
When I die
I will not be in the Consciousness
Of future generations.
I will not be.
I will be ‘not’.
I
poem by Shalom Freedman
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On Time
I aint got time , only got a dime to make a last call
Im gettin soaking wet and it aint rained yet since last fall
I got myself a coach ticket on the southern railroad line
I dont have to worry cause I know it never leaves on time
Late last night we made love and evrything was all right
You walked out the door and the only thing I saw was the hall light
I got myself a coach ticket on the southern railroad line
I dont have to worry cause I know it never leaves on time
(break)
Why didnt you see that you dont feel the same way as I do
I understood before that you couldnt take much more as I knew
I got myself a coach ticket on the southern railroad line
I dont have to worry cause I know it never leaves on time
song performed by by Bee Gees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I also like the banging piano - that old good-time piano.
quote by Little Richard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.
quote by Leo Tolstoy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Through Paris 1970
As you rode through Paris
in the packed coach
the radio played
Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5
and Mamie
sat beside you
her head to one side
sleeping
her mouth open
like some fish
out of water
her hands tucked
between her thighs
her blue skirt
riding high
and the slow movement
of the Beethoven piece
began
the piano playing softy
as the bright lights
of Paris
lit up
the dull space
inside the coach
and you closed your eyes
laying a hand
surreptiously
over hers
hearing the piano
and orchestra
as if in a dream
and Mamie
never minded
your hand
on hers
or so you thought then
and as now
it would seem.
poem by Terry Collett
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The lunatic and the great.
I dream at night what the lunatic does in day.
I do in day what the great do at night
I am neither lunatic nor the great.
I am either lunatic or the great yet.
19.06.2006
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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With Kafka.
Kafka would have liked
the way you said that.
You kept his books on
the shelf next to those
of Burroughs and Joyce.
You like the painting on
the book’s paper cover.
Paperbacks are cheap
and soon worn out,
Thornton used to say.
He liked hard covered
books, first editions if
he could afford. He said
Kafka was too morbid
for you. You need a lighter
read, he said, something
that doesn’t mess with
your female head. You
take down the Kafka and
read again where you read
before, the whole drama
unfolding, the printed words
bringing a different world,
and ghostly by the window
with steady stare, Franz Kafka
in silence just sitting there.
poem by Terry Collett
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The Railroad
Up each morning at five oclock,
Seem like the noon-day sun aint never gonna stop.
The work is hard in a railroad yard,
Hey, hey, gotta make it today to punch a time card.
Workin on the railroad.
Chorus
Oh, you know, the railroad is a mighty good line,
Come on and ride the railroad, one more time.
Oh, you know, the railroad is a mighty good line,
Come on and ride the railroad, one more time.
Dirt and sweat, runnin down my back,
Workin on the railroad.
Work all day long up and down the railroad tracks.
Workin on the railroad.
Im a God fearing man, and with many I stand,
Workin on the railroad.
And with God weve been working, all hand in hand.
Workin on the railroad.
Chorus
Oh, you know, the railroad is a mighty good line,
Workin on the railroad.
Come on and ride the railroad, one more time.
Workin on the railroad.
Oh, you know, the railroad is a mighty good line,
Come on and ride the railroad, one more time.
song performed by by Grand Funk Railroad
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Railroad Bill
Railroad bill were gonna railroad bill
He never works and he never will
Im gonna ride on a railroad bill
Im gonna ride on a railroad bill
Railroad bill he was a mighty bad man
Kill anybody that he think he can
Gonna ride old railroad bill
Gonna ride old railroad bill
Im singin railroad bill,
Im talkin railroad bill, uh-huh-huh
He never worked and he never will
Im gonna ride on railroad bill, yeah
(cmon) Im gonna ride on railroad bill
Well old railroad bill he done stole my wife
Im gonna check him down Im gonna take his life
Gonna ride on railroad bill
Gonna ride railroad bill
Im singin railroad bill
On a railroad bill
He never worked and he never will
Im gonna ride on railroad bill
Im gonna ride on railroad bill
Railroad bill he was a mighty bad man
Kill anybody that he think he can
Gonna ride old railroad bill
Gonna ride railroad bill
Im talkin railroad bill
I love him railroad bill
Uh-huh-huh
He never worked and he never will
Gonna ride on railroad bill
Yeah, gonna ride on railroad bill
Well Im goin up the mountain
Yes Im goin out west
I got a mighty big pistol
Stickin out of my vest
Gonna ride old railroad bill
Gonna ride (alright)
Railroad bill, I love that railroad bill
Uh-huh-huh
He never works and he never will
Im gonna ride on a railroad bill
Im gonna ride on railroad bill
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows us that faith proves nothing.
quote by Friedrich Nietzsche
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A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
quote by Friedrich Nietzsche
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Am At Home With Kafka
.
I AM AT HOME WITH KAFKA
I am at home with Kafka -
I know his soul
I read it as mine own so many years ago-
His father as my father
And his face as my grandmother's,
Lean and white and long
With its own deep beautiful sadness-
Anxiety is mine-
And fear is mine-
And parable is mine-
And yet
His genius is his and not mine
He is Kafka
And I am only one of many readers-
I am at home with Kafka
I know his soul
But I am not Kafka-
Kafka is a genius of mankind
And I am a little man writing forgettable lines
Still alive
Many long years after the age
The holy genius went to his grave unrecognized.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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All Night
Turn it up (ha ha ha)
Flimode (ha ha ha)
Busta Rhymes (ha ha ha)
Another banging niggas (ha ha ha)
Another banging niggas (ha ha ha)
Another banging niggas (ha ha ha)
Another banging niggas (ha ha ha)
[Chorus:]
All night
To my east niggas West Coast and dirty south
song performed by by Busta Rhymes from Anarchy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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God's Kingdom
PART 1
[INSPIRED BY LEO TOLSTOY]
More than a hundred years gone
since a thought by this great man
to put an end to man's kingdom
to be a part of god's kingdom
A kingdom which need not bind
bind itself to a boundary
a kingdom which need not safeguard
guarding men need not war over a boundary
a nation without a boundary
a nation which would'nt war for a boundary
would'nt be a man's kingdom
yes...truely a god's kingdom
how do you curb atrocities without a war
India did it fifty years back without a war
Mahatma's ahimsa was an offshoot of Tolstoy's passive resistance
Tolstoy was Gandhi's inspiration
poem by Samanyan Lakshminarayanan
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A poem for Kafka
My elder brother Lalith.P
Who taught me to read and write
And lot of things about fading life.
He's a humble Encyclopedia.
We drink together as friends
When our holey pocket bit sounds
And we had a common sickness
Allergy for money but not alcohol
Villagers amazed of our Brotherhood!
He who introduced me Kafka.
'You should read his The Trial, The Castle
Amerika, The Metamorphosis and the penal Colony.
Most of his unfinished novels published Posthumously.
And He's a German speaking-Jew.'
My brother was really mad of Kafka.
I read few lines of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story recently
'A friend of Kafka.'
And I write this brief poem underneath for him;
'I am sorry Kafka and still I couldn't touch
One of your golden books
But my inner feeling speaks
You're great among others.'
As I always respect of my Corsican brother's word!
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.
quote by Friedrich Nietzsche
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Railroad Days
Jan would climb up so high on the foul screen
Down below I would yell to watch out
When we'd play ? was always the winner
He was brave never listened to me shout
Afternoons playin' ball by the old wall
Hidin' out and of course be the star
Kept my records in old looseleaf notebooks
And today I think I still know where they are
Oh, Railroad days
Railroad days
Railroad days
When I was young, in my prime
On my way
When the rain never got in my way
oh in my younger railroad days
Some nights, Drifters playin' on the hi-fi
Talkin' 'bout girls, or preposterous lies
Laughin hard, watchin' Soupy at eleven
Skonkin' down, one of Mom's lemon pies
Ten o'clock, bringin' groceries from the market
Singin songs, to the darkness of the night
Even sang the parts the instruments were playing
Life was freer, dreams were really quite all right
Oh, Railroad days
Railroad days
Railroad days
When the sun seemed to smile on it's way
When the darkness was easier to play yeah
oh in my younger railroad days
Yesterday, I heard they shut the trains down
The ones than ran, by the field where I would play
Said the folks want new and faster transportation
It's just like me, I'll be obsolete one day
Oh, Railroad days
Railroad days
Railroad days
When I was young, in my prime
On my way
When the rain never got in my way
oh in my younger railroad days
song performed by by Bob Seger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Railroad
Im packin my bags and goin home
I been here too long
So happy , Ill get there on my own , mmm..
Been here for reasons right or wrong
So Im packin my bag and Im gettin home
So Ill walk by the railroad anytime, anytime
Walk by the railroad anytime
Tell my brother and my sister that evrythings gone wrong
But Im walkin by that railroad till Im home
Theres been lies told in my story
But aint juiced none of that glory
But still, I served my time
And theres no use in cryin
cause Im walkin by that railroad till Im home
So Ill walk by the railroad anytime , anytime
Walk by the railroad anytime
Tell my women that I missed her
That I cant wait to kiss her
So Im walkin by that railroad till Im home
Yes Ill walk by the railroad anytime , anytime
Walk by the railroad anytime
Tell my women that I missed her
And I cant wait to kiss her
cause Im walkin by that railroad till Im home
Yes Im walkin by that railroad till Im home
song performed by by Bee Gees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Death, My Friend
Death, my friend - so good to see you!
Stand aloft and view my soul!
I have to say you’re looking frightful -
Bony chum, you affable ghoul.
Death, my friend, so charmed I’m sure!
State your case and tell me straight -
Am I worthy of reward, so
Venture I to Heaven’s Gate?
Death, my friend, a new acquaintance!
You're always welcome in my home -
Though the stare from empty sockets
Indicates to Hell we roam!
Death, my friend - my bosom buddy.
My! your finger points at me!
Be you tired of my frivolity?
Aha, I see - Oblivion, we!
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
Death death death death death death
Death death death death death death
Death death death death death death
Death death death death death death
Death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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