“The unseen owl…”  “Occurrence,” my poem

“The unseen owl…”  “Occurrence,” my poem

we share awareness

 

 

Occurrence

 

The unseen owl, that one call.

 

Nothing more.

What was his need? What desire?

Was it a song, so brief?

It pulsed the still night air,

a reaching sound,

meant for some creature to hear,

and I am near.

 

I call out my one note.

It is no answer, but affirmation:

   owl, you are there, I am here.

I think to open my mouth again,

but at once I understand:

my one note is “I” — 

invited by the owl’s like call.

 

I know the creature has heard me,

and now we share awareness,

a known, a kindred comfort.

We accept the reassurance of echo,

an essence of sensation and being,

the wonder of what we cannot see

   that is yet real.

Together we call out our declaration,

in these moments we feel secure

   against the near boundary of the unknown.

 

January 12, 2016

 

Published online on Mar 26, 2020, in Literati Magazine

 

My poem “Occurrence” was published in my sixth collection of 73 poems, Above all: Poems of dawn and more.

You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),

or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

My poem “Occurrence” was published in my third collection of 64 poems, In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears.

You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),

or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Sketches by Boz

…the Miss Willises are a scream…

by Charles Dickens

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

The Bombing of Auschwitz…yay or nay? book review

The Bombing of Auschwitz…yay or nay? book review

not everything is vanity

 

 

Book review:

The Bombing of Auschwitz:

     Should the Allies have Attempted It?

 

Michael J. Neufeld and Michael Berenbaum, eds.

New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000

350 pages with extensive notes, bibliography, and index

 

The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies have Attempted It? is a retrospective, somewhat repetitive but broadly didactic selection of 15 arguments for and against the bombing of Auschwitz, with more than 40 primary source documents.

You’ll learn a lot about the terrible dilemma that the Allies faced—and some of them tried to ignore—during World War II. If the Allies had tried to bomb the crematoria, would Jewish lives have been saved? At what cost to the overall war effort?

Neufeld and Berenbaum offer 15 points of view, but, of course, the questions can’t be answered with full confidence.

Sadly, we can’t re-do the solitary track of history.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Lord of the Flies

Never more relevant…

by William Golding

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

everyone sees it…the empyrean

everyone sees it…the empyrean

in Neander time

 

 

empyrean

 

She walked each day

   beneath the great above,

she had no word for it,

she had no need for a sound

   to name what everyone saw,

from time to time she looked up,

this woman who searched for berries

   and drew water from the Neander,

she saw the high colors, the nomad clouds,

the bright specks in the night,

she knew the certain track

   of the star of day,

all beyond her reach, beyond her ken,

she knew their home was in the great above,

she had no reverent word for it,

she reached for another berry,

without thinking, she looked up…

 

June 8, 2024

it’s been there for a long time…

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Map of Knowledge

a slo-mo version of Fahrenheit 451

by Violet Moller

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Anne Lamott talks about shaking our heads…

Anne Lamott talks about shaking our heads…

“…and even make us laugh…”

 

 

“When writers make us shake our heads

with the exactness of their prose and their truths,

and even make us laugh about ourselves or life…”

 

Anne Lamott (b1954)

in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

p. 237

 

The “exactness” part is the hard part.

I try to make the meaning of my poems so clear that they wake up your mind.

Then you can laugh about it, shout about it…

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Poems of Robert Frost

he hears bluebirds talking…

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

You can only see four legs…

You can only see four legs…

It’s not a leg…

 

 

“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?

Four.

Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

 

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

16th American president

 

Truth isn’t necessarily what someone claims it is. Check it out.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (book review)

Pekka Hämäläinen tells it like it was…

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”

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