by Richard Subber | Aug 9, 2026 | Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets, Tidbits
…words can be pictures…
“The world is never the same
once a good poem has been added to it.”
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Welsh poet and writer
Dylan could have said “A poet is never the same after writing a good poem,” or “A person is never the same after reading or hearing a good poem.”
I’m in love with words, and I love to use the best words to create poems that have clarity and character.
Sometimes I think of my work as “literal poetry.” I don’t put my pen down until I’ve said exactly what I feel, exactly what I mean to say, so that you, as the reader or listener, will have no doubt about it. I want to write poems that don’t need to be explained—what you see is what it is. I want to write poems that express deep human emotions, and thoughtful observations, and precise meanings.
I am a poet, a writer, a teacher, a moralist, a historian, and an unflinching student of human nature. I think a lot. I strive to express truth and give context—both rational and emotional—to reality.
I think words can be pictures, and lovely songs, and bodacious scents, and private flavors, and early morning caresses that wake each part of me, one at a time. I know some of those words, and, from time to time, I write some of them.
I read a lot of poetry, including the classic poets like Homer and poets in America and poets around the world who have written since ancient times to modern times. Occasionally I find a poem, or a phrase, or an image that is intensely intuitive, or wonderfully imaginative, or just plain beautiful. I offer those words from other poets for your enjoyment.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle
…what meets the eye…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 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 | Aug 6, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Poetry
we could’ve sent a poet into space…
Book review:
The Universe in Verse:
15 Portals to Wonder Through Science & Poetry
by Maria Popova, North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2024
95 pages
Poetry can be everywhere.
Poets can talk about anything.
Poets can experience everything,
and imagine everything.
For science, the same is true.
For scientists, the same is true.
Maria Popova offers one way of manifesting and combining these truths in The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder Through Science & Poetry.
Wanna know what a poet thinks about pi?
Wanna know what Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote about Euclid?
Wanna know why Carl Sagan successfully sought a Voyager picture of Earth, the “pale blue dot” in our solar system?
Wanna know why an astronomer wrote a poem about “dark matter”?
Read The Universe in Verse. Then read it again.
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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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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 | Aug 4, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History, Politics, Power and inequality
too many Americans died…
Book review:
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
by Michael Lewis
New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2021
The Premonition is the compelling work by Michael Lewis (of The Big Short fame).
You’ll recognize the narrative nonfiction style—this is the Michael Lewis stuff you love to read.
The Premonition is a fully frightening account of the deadly inability of the Trump government (including the CDC) and corporate America to deal effectively with the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 1.2 million Americans. Too many Americans died because Trump and his lackies and the private sector wouldn’t try to do what they were responsible to do.
Lewis won’t make you feel good about the institutions of American national government and the so-called capitalist system.
He is eminently clear, and relentlessly anecdotal.
Michael Lewis never met an anecdote that wasn’t worth repeating.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shawshank Redemption
A world I do not want to know…
by Stephen King
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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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by Richard Subber | Aug 1, 2026 | Poetry
The Book of Days
The dawn’s early light can be pleasure enough for the whole day.
There are words enough to tell the story of “the temptation of day to come.”
It is my delight to write some of them for your delectation.
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: Forced Founders
by Woody Holton
The so-called “Founding Fathers”
weren’t the only ones
who helped to shape our independence…
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many waters: more poems with 53 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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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