by Richard Subber | Aug 15, 2026 | Books, History, Reflections, World history
The faux convenience of historical eras…
It was the Renaissance, everybody knows that, right?
You know about the Middle Ages, right? Roughly a thousand years in European history, from the fall of Rome in 476 to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century or so. The Renaissance itself lasted several hundred years, into the 17th century.
The thing is, the folks who lived through those extended dynamic eras didn’t know what they were doing. I mean, they didn’t know it was “the Middle Ages” or “the Renaissance.”
Those words weren’t used in the English language until the early 18th century.
During the Middle Ages, for example, medieval writers referred to historical events as “ancient” and described their own times as “modern.” Beauty is in the eye…
Pundits or philosophers of the future may call our current era the Age of Tomfoolery, or maybe something else…
We’ll never know.
Source:
Owen Barfield, History in English Words (Hudson, NY: The Lindisfarne Press, 1953), 167.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“The beginning is always today.”
(quote, Mary Shelley)
so get started…
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 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 13, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
good story-telling…
Kaa’s Hunting (1893)
in The Jungle Book (1894)
by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Kaa’s Hunting (1893) fills you with thoughts of comradeship, adventure, bravery, loyalty, and jungle stuff. It’s a good introduction to Kipling’s style and to his deep dives into real and fictionalized life events.
Mowgli the man-cub learns much after he is abducted by the monkey people.
The reader learns much about tolerating the way things are, and about doing the right thing to make things better.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
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Empyrean: new poems with 57 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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by Richard Subber | Aug 11, 2026 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
say it out loud…
buttah
What is so easy about
learning an accent?
Sit down at the diner,
and hear the gent
in the next booth
ordering his meal,
and listen to him
saying “buttah” for his toast
and “buttah” for his muffin,
and so casually you think you know
his parents
and his birth place
and his region,
and his different-ness
and his limits,
and his prescribed life
and his narrow self…
He is so knowable,
but wait—
he listens when you speak…
May 24, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Movie review: Same Time, Next Year
all-American adultery, oh yeah…
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 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 | 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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