by Richard Subber | Aug 27, 2024 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
talk trash to the wind
des arbres et vents
The trees do not seek the wind,
but they grow where it goes.
A tree knows its work:
a tree stands in rain
and growth happens
time after time,
and a tree stands in snow
and holds it aloft
for us to see,
and a tree welcomes critters
who need a high place to live.
Every tree tempts the breezes
and taunts the wind,
boughs do not break
as they beckon all winds,
the limbs slide and sway
and push the wind aside,
the trees eat the wind
under sun and stars,
each tiny twig, each lazy leaf
talks trash to the wily wind
that knows about the detours
in great worlds of open air,
but won’t give up the endless gift
of giving the trees
a reason to bend
as they turn the wind
into wrinkles that slump and hide,
among the unseen nests
of the birds and squirrels.
May 23, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
84, Charing Cross Road (book review)
Helene Hanff, on reading good books…
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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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Aug 24, 2024 | Book reviews, Books, Books Commentary, Joys of reading, Language
…a “man of letters”…
Book review:
Literary Life: A Second Memoir
by Larry McMurtry (1936-2021)
Simon & Schuster, 2009
McMurtry moves me to want more, read more…
It’s incredibly easy to read McMurtry—I’ve read Books: A Memoir, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, and now Literary Life. Time after time, it seems that he writes in an off-hand way; thoughts and scenes and chapters can end very abruptly. Yet, the work seems polished. The prose is spare, as Larry acknowledges.
I am titillated by his familiar references to so many authors and works. I would love to be a “man of letters,” as McMurtry claims to be. The draw for me is McMurtry’s immersion in books. I would be thrilled to own 200,000 books. Desperately thrilled.
I’m pretty sure that McMurtry’s passionate engagement with books and authors is a believable lifestyle. His many references to re-reading books is a believable commitment.
Since I retired nearly 20 years ago, I have, from time to time, envisioned taking the pledge to read the entire oeuvre of an author I like. Now I am moved to read McMurtry’s books. I plan to re-read Books and Literary Life to get clues about how to read them. I’ll consider reading his works in order by pub date, except for the Lonesome Dove and Berrybender tetralogies, of course.
I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Will the last monkey cry?
the new reality…
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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Aug 22, 2024 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
I realize new truths…
now then…
The unknowable future
has been around for a long time,
it is,
it will be,
the mystery is what, not if.
I realize new truths.
I’m closer to my future
than I used to be,
I’m closer to my final future.
I think more about tomorrow,
I think more about today.
Sweet futures can become sweet nows,
the nows I can know.
I can choose my next now,
I do not know tomorrow’s future,
I will live it in good time.
May 11, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut
“Write a six line poem, about anything…
–
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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Aug 18, 2024 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
don’t pretend this isn’t true…
“We almost always know what the right thing is.”
from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016
p. 156
don’t try to forget this
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw
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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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Aug 15, 2024 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
what’s it all about?
another thing
j’ever notice
that they never look up
to look at the phone?
head tilted down,
the obvious sign,
body still,
thumbs awhirl,
faintest breaths…
how often have you seen
someone pumping a fist
and shouting “yeah!”
after scrolling down
one more time?
Try talking to that guy
in the waiting room
who hasn’t looked up
from his phone
since he sat down…
think about being him…
it won’t take long.
May 9, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
1491 by Charles Mann (book review)
…lost American legacies
–
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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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