by Richard Subber | May 18, 2025 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
sweet success
redux
It’s okay to do it again,
we finally start to learn
that “again” is a potent word,
an invitation, a command,
a goal, a triumph,
a reminder
that we don’t always get it right,
and the do-over
can be salvation
and sweet success
and atonement,
another chance to share a smile,
another round of thank-yous,
the best “I love you”
ever whispered.
March 1, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: An Empire on the Edge
by Nick Bunker
The British wanted to win
the Revolutionary War,
but they had good reasons
for not trying too hard…
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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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | May 15, 2025 | American history, Books, History
The “pack horse librarians” of Kentucky in 1935
Another daunting truth about the Great Depression in America (1929-1939):
Almost two-thirds of the beleaguered folks in eastern Kentucky
had no access to public libraries,
and about 30% of rural Kentuckians were illiterate (!).
Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration to the rescue! In 1935 the WPA organized a system of rural book deliveries by women on horseback—the “pack horse librarians.” (A “pack horse” was one carrying a load of any kind, and the “book ladies” piled on the books for their treks among the rural folk). As their delivery service flourished, they delivered about 3,000 books each month to kids and adults on their routes.
The pack horse librarians earned about $28 a month (roughly $500 in current dollars). Their book inventory was limited: the riders themselves created recipe books and scrapbooks of current events, and more or less every PTA member in Kentucky donated books for their patrons.
The most popular books? It was a regular rundown of favorites: travel, adventure, religion, kids’ picture books, and detective and romance magazines.
Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of this equine service, visited one of the offices in West Liberty, Kentucky. The pack horse librarians kept up their work until 1943, when paying for World War II took priority.
The book lovers in rural Kentucky had to wait about 15 years to regain regular access to books, which was re-established when some of the early bookmobiles were put into service.
See more details at this Open Culture website
Here’s a topical 2019 novel about one of the pack horse librarians:
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
by Kim Michele Richardson
click here
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Blithedale Romance
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, not his best…
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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 | May 13, 2025 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
you hear what you hear…
andante, redux
Maybe we hear the music
we want to hear,
maybe each ear
hears its own sound,
maybe Beethoven
really didn’t have a problem,
maybe music really is
a many-splendored thing,
maybe the cranky tunes
I hear now in this empty lounge
are sweeter music
to the madame
who intently pushes the keys,
and stares at her old pages
cramped with penciled mementos,
and waves off
brief words from a passerby,
and hears that pastorale
as she played it long ago
with nimbler fingers
and a steady foot,
and charmed some children,
and some friends,
and a lover,
and nodded with Beethoven’s shade,
and never guessed
that she would play
that tune again
as I wander by
and briefly hear my version,
and wonder about her music.
Feb 20, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
“…and dipped in folly…”
only Poe knows how to say it…
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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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | May 10, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Joys of reading, Politics, Power and inequality
seemingly unavoidable…
Book review:
The Demon of Unrest
by Erik Larson (b1954)
New York: Crown Publishing Group, div. of Penguin Random House, 2024
565 pages
You’ll recognize the casually engaging prose and the dedicated storytelling style of Erik Larson. It’s a pleasure to read everything he writes.
Larson digs deep to explore the nature of the “demon of unrest” that made trouble for decades and wouldn’t stop provoking the evil sentiments and the violent politics that preceded the historic outbreak of the American Civil War in the Charleston harbor in April 1861.
The Demon of Unrest names and spotlights all the characters who played mostly behind-the-scenes roles as Lincoln and Davis and Beauregard and Scott and Seward and Ruffin and their well-known colleagues blustered and schemed and waited and welcomed and feared the seemingly unavoidable war to end slavery.
No matter how much you know, you’ll learn something more about the assault on Ft. Sumter by reading this book.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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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”
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by Richard Subber | May 8, 2025 | Joys of reading, Language, Tidbits
ink stains on the philosopher’s stone…
“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold;
they change the world into words.”
William H. Gass (1924-2017)
American novelist, philosopher
Gass had his way with words. If you’re a serious reader, check him out.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
–
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”
* * * * * *
