by Richard Subber | Jan 26, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
I’ve seen other creatures…
la cage
I could be wrong,
I think I’m a bird.
It’s hard to put it into words
‘cause I can’t talk
in exactly the way
the big creature does.
The creature can’t sing, of course,
I’ve sung the easy tunes
so many times,
but all I hear from the creature
is “la la la”
and “mmmh mmmh,”
without a speck of joy.
The creature gives me food,
although the seeds are really old
and the bugs are already dead!
and nectar?
oh well, I’ll keep waiting…
The hairy thing that barks
doesn’t jump up any more,
I stopped being scared.
It’s a good thing I’m up so high!
I did get to fly once
when the creature
forgot to shut the little door,
but I didn’t go far,
my little arms got tired,
then I moved around three times
and then the creature grabbed me—
it didn’t hurt—
and now I’m back inside.
I can see through the wall,
the sun is sometimes bright,
the sticks with greenish things
go up and down,
and back and forth,
I’ve seen other creatures
that sort of look like me,
I heard one sing my song.
A while ago, when it was dark
I think I had a thought…
I’m sitting here…
I can’t remember it.
December 7, 2024
“la cage” was inspired by “A Caged Bird” by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)
excerpt:
“High at the window in her cage
The old canary flits and sings,
Nor sees across the curtain pass
The shadow of a swallow’s wings.”
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care so much
about each other…
by Langdon Gilkey
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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 | Jan 23, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
there’s more than structure involved…
Book review:
American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century
Vols. 1 and 2
New York: The Library of America, 1993
Vol. 1 – 1,099 pages
Vol. 2 – 1,049 pages
What can I say?
In general, the poetry of bygone centuries is uninteresting to me.
The poets were convinced that structure was overwhelmingly important, or, perhaps, their readers were convinced that structure was overwhelmingly important, or, perhaps, both.
The word “relentless” comes to my mind. It’s difficult for me to read much of this work—silently or aloud—without bobbing my head, saying the emphasized syllables with increasing vigor and noise, and moving my body to match the all-too-obvious, often drum beat rhythms.
It seems to me that these poets think that the conjunction of selected words is of secondary or tertiary concern, whereas I believe it should be the overriding expression of the poetic arts.
The millions in the past disagreed. So be it.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Forget about Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dracula is a scary book, really…
by Bram Stoker
–
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 | Jan 21, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
one more round…
before it’s light…
It’s not quite day,
and I haven’t completely
shrugged sleep from my thoughts,
I’m thinking this is the short time,
this is “get started” time,
this is the gossamer moment
for pulling on the bright shirt
and welcoming one more day,
one more morning,
one more round of life,
one more chance
to get it mostly right,
I’m thinking nothing new here,
just like yesterday,
do good things,
get ready for tomorrow.
October 2, 2024
…waiting for breakfast at Easter’s Country Kitchen, Hingham, MA
Published in Creative Inspirations, Jan-Feb 2025 issue
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Hag-Seed
by Margaret Atwood…it ain’t Shakespeare
–
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 | Jan 18, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Human Nature, Politics, Power and inequality
what’s right is right…
Book review:
No Constitutional Right to be Ladies:
Women and the Obligations of Citizenship
by Linda K. Kerber (b1940)
New York: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1998
405 pages
Kerber, a well-respected historian, makes what should be an obvious point: women are citizens, just like men, and they should share all the rights and obligations of citizenship.
She disputes, in compelling detail, that women have a constitutional right “to be ladies” when that is conceived as separating them from a complete status as functioning citizens who are the constitutional equals of men (even the ones they’ve married!).
It’s not a “feminist” thing or a “suffrage” thing. It’s a matter-of-fact thing—nothing about it doesn’t make sense.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Oops, Columbus didn’t “discover” America
…but he did get close…
–
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 | Jan 16, 2025 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
the humanity…
“Ah, the prayers of the millions,
how they must fight and destroy each other
on their way to the throne of God.”
We always think of our prayers as singular events…
From Tortilla Flat in The Short Novels of John Steinbeck
by John Steinbeck with an introduction by Joseph Henry Jackson
New York: The Viking Press, orig. copy. 1953, 1963.
527 pages
quote from p. 18
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
–
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”
* * * * * *
