by Richard Subber | Jun 14, 2025 | Joys of reading, My poetry, Poetry
…only small shadows…
Dreamery #1
The scraggly disarray of an old farm yard
was the milieu,
not a real place in my memory,
but a scene I could understand.
The dream was realistic in its detail,
jumbled in its action.
I’m no farmer, I had no impulse
to harvest any dream theme,
I was there in fact.
I was a witness without a question.
I felt no urge to end it.
I had no curious thought.
In the old barn I sensed
a history in every damp corner,
an unfinished story in every heap
of debris that marked a process without progress,
in remnants of machines,
in the gear of abandoned projects
that made only small shadows
on the untidy floor.
The cowgirl and the kids who urged
their clattering horses
through this carelessly cluttered scene
were noisy,
but I couldn’t make out their words…
Outside a squad of ragtag soldiers
shambled into view,
wearing remnants of antique uniforms,
maybe they had guns,
with no fierce mien among them…
these were militia, maybe,
with no impulse to rush to battle,
no inspiration to huzzah,
no flag to die for…
Their leader was a faded heroine of dream time,
a broad-hipped fat woman
in some style of tunic,
no memorable face,
yelling for services and a campsite and supplies,
in some style of a martinet, it seemed,
but not convincing…
I sensed that there was no apparent reason
for this ersatz troop to be there,
it seemed that they wanted
to be somewhere else.
For a moment, I felt some sympathy.
July 27, 2017
Often I don’t remember my dreams. I was aware that there was no particular reason to remember this one. It was not a particular dream. This is one particular way of saying that.
My poem “Dreamery #1” was published in my second collection of 47 poems, Seeing far: Selected poems. You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, click here
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
A poet is a “maker”
…and it doesn’t have to rhyme…
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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 | Jun 7, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading
intensely human emotions…
Book review:
Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan (b1968)
New York: Grove Press, 2021
118 pages
Much of Small Things Like These qualifies for an “ordinary” description, but the reader repeatedly is invited to experience such intensely human emotions that it’s troubling to turn the page and continue reading…
Bill Furlong, a coal dealer living a small life in a small town, rescues a forsaken girl, and understands that there is “fresh, new, unrecognizable joy in his heart,” but he dreads what is “yet to come…” The girl is a hapless pawn in an enduring evil reality.
Keegan knows how to tell the reader about that joy, in her smooth and enticing prose that creates credible people living credible lives in a small place that makes room for great hearts.
She gives us reason to imagine that more people are willing to do good.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Who Built America?
…including people
who got their hands dirty
by Christopher Clark and Nancy Hewitt
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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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by Richard Subber | Jun 5, 2025 | Human Nature, Joys of reading, Reflections, Tidbits
just the same…
“I do miss her,” he answered, and sighed again.
“Folks all kep’ repeatin’ that time would ease me,
but I can’t find it does.
No, I miss her just the same every day.”
Fisherman Elijah Tilley talks about his deceased wife, he calls her “poor dear,”
in Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories
by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)
The Library of America
New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1994
p. 477
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 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 | May 27, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading, Language, Reflections
these characters are yearning, yearning…
Book review:
Victory
by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1928
412 pages
It may be that it is enough to say about Victory that it is lush prose that wraps around your mind and leaves you sated at the end of every chapter.
Conrad’s style, I dare to say, is not for every modern taste. It is dialogue-rich. The action is spare. For me, the essential appeal of Victory is the reflective context of the characters’ state of mind: their imaginations, their aspirations, their candid self-assessments.
In Victory, there is enough honesty, enough resignation, enough disappointment, enough yearning to make you feel like you want to claim that your life is good.
At least, good enough.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
–
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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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”
* * * * * *
