be a buttonhole…

be a buttonhole…

being a buttonhole…

 

 

“I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,  

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,  

but because it never forgot what it could do.”

 

Keep on doing what you can do.

 

quote from “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye (b1952)

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review:

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

The Bard was the lucky one…

by Bill Bryson

click here

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

The Fabric of Reality…book review

The Fabric of Reality…book review

let’s talk about relevance…

 

 

Book review:

The Fabric of Reality:

The Science of Parallel Universes—

         and its Implications

 

by David Deutsch

New York: Penguin Books, 1997

 

The Fabric of Reality is intriguing, but it’s also hard work.

I think I “understand,” to use Deutsch’s word, that he likes to talk about the Big Bang and the so-called Theory of Everything.

Personally, I find it interesting to know something about his “four main strands,” namely, quantum physics, epistemology, the theory of computation, and evolution.

Nevertheless, I embrace a willingness to suspect that the esoterica of physics and a philosophy of physics are essentially irrelevant to the lives that nearly all of us lead.

You can read the whole book if you want to.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review:

Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene

sincere, but off the mark…

click here

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“magic still unknown…”…“Void,” my poem

“magic still unknown…”…“Void,” my poem

looking up has no avail

 

 

Void

 

No trace, a void,

the trees embrace

   the empty vault,

no whispered breeze,

no hint of dawn,

the dark can tell no tale,

and looking up

   has no avail…

 

The ancients saw such sky,

and had scant words

   for such nothingness,

and took their time

   to wonder:

      had their gods fled?

or mused on magic

   still unknown,

or turned to scrape

   another stone,

they did not know of

   and had no care

      for moons and star things.

 

March 14, 2025

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Chosen

Life: exuberant, and otherwise…

by Chaim Potok

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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Small Things Like These…book review

intensely human emotions…

 

 

Book review:

Small Things Like These

 

by Claire Keegan (b1968)

New York: Grove Press, 2021

118 pages 

 

Much of Small Things Like These qualifies for an “ordinary” description, but the reader repeatedly is invited to experience such intensely human emotions that it’s troubling to turn the page and continue reading…

Bill Furlong, a coal dealer living a small life in a small town, rescues a forsaken girl, and understands that there is “fresh, new, unrecognizable joy in his heart,” but he dreads what is “yet to come…” The girl is a hapless pawn in an enduring evil reality.

Keegan knows how to tell the reader about that joy, in her smooth and enticing prose that creates credible people living credible lives in a small place that makes room for great hearts.

She gives us reason to imagine that more people are willing to do good.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Who Built America?

…including people

            who got their hands dirty

by Christopher Clark and Nancy Hewitt

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett

“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett

just the same…

 

 

“I do miss her,” he answered, and sighed again.

Folks all kep’ repeatin’ that time would ease me,

    but I can’t find it does.

 No, I miss her just the same every day.”

 

Fisherman Elijah Tilley talks about his deceased wife, he calls her “poor dear,”

 

in Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories

by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)

The Library of America

New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1994

p. 477

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

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