by Richard Subber | May 31, 2026 | Human Nature, Theater and play reviews
many splendored smiles…
Movie review:
Carol
starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara
Cate Blanchett has a many-splendored smile. You see several of them in Carol (2015, rated R, 118 minutes).
Blanchett’s smile is deep, almost inexplicably alluring, enduring, and profoundly feminine. Sexy? You decide.
Rooney Mara is an almost new pair of eyes for me (think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). She uses her face like Blanchett does: her face exalts her feelings, you wouldn’t mind seeing it on a stadium-size screen.
Carol is a 1950s-era exploration of how two ladies can fall in love and then wander in their lives until they figure out what love means. Carol (Blanchett) discovers Therese (Mara)—or is it the other way?—and they can’t escape living their previous lives while they mature into their new life together.
The movie is based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The “dime novels” in the Civil War
Think “blood-and-thunder”…
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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”
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by Richard Subber | May 28, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
call it dawn
ciel blanc
White raiment was the angel’s garb,
she rent the dark to kiss the night,
the night awoke,
it quivered,
blushed,
and brutish men beheld a dawn.
March 1, 2026
Inspired by “Dawn” (1924) by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1879-1925):
An angel, robed in spotless white,
Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.
Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.
Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Financier
Theodore Dreiser’s villain…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 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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by Richard Subber | May 26, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
over-engineered and under-imagined…
Book review:
Collected Poems
by Charles Kenneth “C. K.” Williams (1936-2015)
Won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006
682 pages
Williams was a prolific poet.
His work is relentlessly structural, to the point of being stylized. He’s in love with lines that are almost the same length, and too long for the page. In too many of his Collected Poems, Williams allows every line of text to stray down to the next line, thus abandoning most of the dramatic effects of artful enjambment.
Williams has over-engineered his poetry, for my taste. I tried reading the poems aloud, but that tiresome exercise confirmed my ennui instead of adding some vitality.
For me, whatever Williams was trying to say has been lost in the dusty storeroom where he has neatly boxed and labeled his poems.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
St. Ives, another look…
less than meets the eye
by Robert Louis Stevenson
(a book review)
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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”
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by Richard Subber | May 23, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
their silent mirth
The ghoulies
The things are there,
we know they are,
they have no names,
they hide from view,
they make no sound,
they have no shape,
they laugh, they do,
their silent mirth
is meant for you,
is meant for me,
they move across our lives,
they drum endless fingers
as they mark each moment,
and move closer
to touch and tingle
and make tiny terrors
in our hearts.
February 25, 2026
Inspired by traditional Scottish prayer:
From ghoulies and ghosties
and long-leggedy beasties
and things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A quote from General Custer
Hint: something to do with Indians…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 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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by Richard Subber | May 21, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language, Reviews of other poets
Kids will love it
Book review:
Sad underwear and other complications
by Judith Viorst (b1931)
New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster, 1995
78 pages
This is a great book of great poems that will make little kids laugh, and make big kids laugh, and make parents laugh.
Such as:
The Seventh Swimming Lesson
Stop the presses.
Call a reporter.
Sally just put her face in the water.
How do I know it’s a great book? I’m a grandfather, and it makes me laugh.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Movie review: A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen’s classic on abuse…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 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”
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