by Richard Subber | Mar 1, 2025 | Books, Language, My poetry, Poetry
The Book of Days
The dawn’s early light can be pleasure enough for the whole day.
There are words enough to tell the story of “the temptation of day to come.”
It is my delight to write some of them for your delectation.
a tasting
…the second look is the keeper.
The clouds are shifting shapes,
moving quickly
across the new morning sky,
the smudge and fold of flannel,
becoming flan,
nudging the smear
of cream sauce,
filling the sky
with hasty pudding
and the like,
making a menu
that lasts mere moments…
January 4, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: To Serve Them All My Days
by R. F. Delderfield
A beloved teacher,
you know this story…
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Feb 27, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
Prepare for the future, don’t try to plan it…
Book review:
Range:
Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
by David Epstein (b1983)
New York: Riverhead Books, 2019
355 pages
We don’t know the future.
We can prepare for it to happen by sampling life and all it has to offer.
We don’t have to choose a career track
or a life path all at once when we’re young.
Most successful, satisfied people change jobs and change goals during their lives.
“Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you.” (p. 290)
Don’t “decide what you should be before first figuring out who you are.” (p. 289)
Michelangelo “left three-fifths of his sculptures unfinished.” (p. 164)
“Instead of working back from a goal, work forward from promising situations.”
Quote from Paul Graham, cited on p. 163
You don’t have to start out committed to one specialized goal or career or life path.
It’s OK to experiment with life, and to keep switching to another thing that interests you more.
It’s OK to take advantage of a lucky break, and make a move in a different direction.
Epstein says it more convincingly, in more detail, with plenty of facts to back up his argument in Range.
p.s. Epstein didn’t start out planning to be a shrewd observer of human nature, but he got there.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle
…what meets the eye…
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Feb 23, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
our little space…
touch
…some easy talk is all we need,
brief moments are the time,
quick smiles come and go,
and linger
and last,
familiar words we share,
we cross our paths,
we laugh in our little space,
our fingers touch,
and touch,
we’re friends, we know that much.
September 23, 2024
Published in March-April 2025 issue of Creative Inspirations
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Feb 20, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Reflections, Tidbits
a literate TO DO list
Book review:
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1
by John McPhee (b1931)
New York: Picador, 2023
180 pages
It’s potentially thrilling when a talented author decides to clear his plate and clear his mind of the old ideas that haven’t been transformed to words.
I dare to suggest that McPhee’s title, Tabula Rasa, was chosen with tongue firmly pressed against cheek. His mind was working and his imagination was full when he picked the best words for his TO DO list.
Some of the appeal of Tabula Rasa is that his short pieces (50 of them) were collected but not organized. Each one is at least around the corner from the next one, and it’s easy to guess that McPhee never was bored while he wrote them.
This is a literate and thought-filled way to clear the deck.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Feb 18, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
they do not tell…
Stonehenge
We look like a circle of stones.
We know why we stand here
but we do not tell,
perhaps we knew the beginning of time,
time means so little to us,
the ages come and go,
our circle stands, unmoving,
reflecting each break of day,
embracing the dawn of dawns,
remembering the chants of long ago,
accepting the credulous chatter
that fills our spaces,
accepting the lightest touch
of each fingertip
that seeks so many answers
to so many questions,
knowing that we exalt pure stillness,
indeed, knowing that the lintels
betray the ignorance
of beguiled masons,
knowing that we
are the upright fingers of the gods
that point to havens
above the sky,
knowing that we may rest on earth
until the unknown end of time.
December 28, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Play review: A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen’s classic on abuse…
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Feb 15, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Politics, Power and inequality
They didn’t have an easy life…
Book review:
The Pioneers:
The Heroic Story of the Settlers
Who Brought the American Ideal West
by David McCullough (1933-2022)
Pulitzer Prize winner
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019
330 pages
This is bona fide David McCullough: endlessly researched, written in profoundly erudite prose, and honestly interesting to a wide range of readers.
The Pioneers tells you as much as (if not more than) you could ever care to know about the hardy folks who founded Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century, while George Washington was figuring out how to be our first president.
They didn’t have an easy life. They worked hard to keep slavery out of the Northwest Territory. They weren’t worried much about displacing the Native Americans who had lived in that region for thousands of years. They believed that they were brave and dedicated to making a good life, for themselves and their children.
They did a decent job, really. Read all about it, or read as much of it as you care to.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
* * * * * *
