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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Kafkaesque
After a lifetime
of describing
things as Kafkaesque
I finally read Kafka
and discovered
he's not Kafkaesque a bit!
he's a lot more like Kafka
in fact
to my untrained eye
than his Esque
would suggest
or seem to imply.
poem by Frank Bana
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Emily Dickinson Is Not Borges
EMILY DICKINSON IS NOT BORGES
Emily Dickinson is not Borges
And Borges is not Kafka
And Kafka is not Dickens
And no one is Shakespeare-
Each one is only one self
Except for those who are many selves
And those who are many selves
Do not know
Who they themselves are-
Lear is not Falstaff
And Falstaff is not Hamlet
And Hamlet is not Shakespeare
And Shakespeare is not Donne-
No one is anyone but themselves
And even those who are really ‘someone'
Are not all the others who also are-
And we who are nothing at all?
What are we?
We are not nothing at all.
We are not great
And no one will remember our names
But we are still here now
Reading Borges and Dickenson and Kafka and Shakespeare
And wondering how and why
There are those in a world of their own
With names of their own
They themselves will never completely know.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Bellow Can Only Be Bellow
BELLOW CAN BE ONLY BELLOW
Bellow can only be Bellow
Kierkegaard-Kierkegaard
Kafka- Kafka
Joyce- Joyce
Borges- Borges
Pessoa-Pessoa
There is only one of each of us-
And no matter how many pages we write
And how many names we give ourselves and our own characters
No matter how many styles we invent
Each one is only one-
And so this small poem too
Will not be for anyone else
Any more or other
Than so much else
Which has already failed to give me the kind of name
Only the truly great have-.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Kafka
Short of ending up like Kafka
Who toiled in obscurity
And died peniless
I work myself up
Not to allow myself down
Becoming one voice
For the community of
Published writers
Storming through the
Clutter of red tape
And desks covered in
Layers of dust
I dig my fingers into
Manuscripts
Of old
And allow my eyes
To file away alphbetically
The words
Words of virtue
Of nature
Of life
Of love
Written in free form
Or rhyme
Oh to wax poetic
With some unique prose
Nothing compares to
The poetic Rose
Got to raise myself up
From the words of before
Recapture their essence
In a more elegant form
Brainstorming creative
Issues is not all what it seems
Musn't end up like kafka
Lost in obscurity's
Almost famous dreams
poem by Theodora Onken
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
It is not Kafka's fault that his wonderful writings have lately turned into a fad, and are read by people who have neither the ability nor the desire to absorb literature.
quote by Herman Hesse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
You are free, and that is why you are lost.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
quote by Franz Kafka
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!