by Richard Subber | Mar 6, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry
a dog like him…
Oh, LeRoy!
It’s just not true that every ranch
has to have a dog like him,
but try to name a place that calls
itself a ranch, and claims with pride
to be a place where cowboys ride,
and doesn’t have a lanky pooch
who sleeps in all the darnedest spots,
and loves a scratch, and likes the kids,
and knows his name is LeRoy.
Every dude at Smith Fork Ranch
made friends with him without delay,
and learned his name, and scratched his head,
and waved him into line to join
the hike up to the bears’ own ridge,
and cheered him on when he detoured
to splash around in that high pond,
and made a point, back at the ranch,
to grab a treat from LeRoy’s jar
and make him “Sit!” (he almost did).
You’ll guess these stories never end,
but you don’t know that we were there
on our last day, when that old truck
made too much noise in passing by,
and LeRoy knew—to keep us safe—
he had to snarl and bark and run
to chase that truck—but oh!, too close…
He never knew how many tears,
so many tears we had for him.
October 15, 2016
LeRoy died at Smith Fork Ranch, Crawford, CO, in September 2007.
My poem “Oh, LeRoy!” 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, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
–
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 | Mar 4, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Language
humanity surging…
Book review:
Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)
Simon & Brown, 1919, 2012
208 pages
The reader of Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is tempted to think of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology (1915), but the reader should resist the temptation.
There is very little of society in Spoon River, and so much of society in each of Anderson’s short stories. The humanity surges in these stories, and they touch so many memories of being with other people and making life happen.
At the end of each story—“Nobody knows,” “The untold lie,” and the list goes on—the reader wonders:
is there more?
is there more to know?
is there more truth?
It’s easy to put this book down, and it’s easier to pick it up again.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
–
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 | 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
* * * * * *
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…
–
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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
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.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle
…what meets the eye…
–
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”
* * * * * *
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
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Remember the Tallahatchie Bridge?
Molly Johnson sings it right…
–
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.
* * * * * *
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.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Boz indeed! Sketches by Boz
Charles Dickens delivers,
in a fastidiously literary kind of way…
–
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”
* * * * * *
