by Richard Subber | Jun 16, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
work that hoe…
Gardens galore
What’s not a garden?
What doesn’t want to grow?
What do we have
that will not be cultivated?
What part of me
does not strive
to be a seed?
What part of you
would not thrive
in the damp of desire?
What time will you not give
to pluck a weed, and then another?
What earth does not long at night
for the gentle push of the hoe?
What greater joy
than stroking the first green shoot,
and cuddling the first bloom?
What would you say to the child
who wants to be a gardener?
March 28, 2026
Inspired by “In Time” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, March 28, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Loneliness beyond understanding…
by Herman Melville
–
Empyrean: new poems with 57 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 | Jun 14, 2026 | My poetry, Other, Poetry, Reflections
Loneliness, en passant…
Shivering
I take a stand in the cold tonight,
this frigid porch is bare,
in deadened, yellowed light,
a chitter of rustic sound is near…
I guess that loneliness could find a home here.
I guess I might feel warmer in the dark.
February 1, 2018
It was only a few moments, a mere chance to feel lonely,
I let it pass…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 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 | Jun 9, 2026 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
heartbeats on display
allegro
The boy was bouncing,
hopping, jumping,
he was on the move,
kids make their world a motion,
an energy,
a swirl,
they test their arms,
and legs,
and fingers,
and their voices,
and their faces,
and ways to look around
and through their spaces,
and sounds that are new words
in their worlds,
they do not share
their racing thoughts,
but they put their heartbeats on display,
their disporting has no end.
Do you remember that part of you
is a child?
Will you let that part of you
bounce with joy?
Your inner child wants to jump,
now.
March 28, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Reader (Der Vorleser)
Not just a rehash of WWII…
by Bernhard Schlink
–
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 2, 2026 | 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.
night ignited
The star of day makes an oven,
sears the edge of dawn,
spurns the trees,
it makes no smoke,
but there is fire in the sky,
tumult without motion,
a caldron without sound,
a heat that does not burn.
March 15, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Poems of Robert Frost
he hears bluebirds talking…
–
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 | May 28, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
call it dawn
ciel blanc
White raiment was the angel’s garb,
she rent the dark to kiss the night,
the night awoke,
it quivered,
blushed,
and brutish men beheld a dawn.
March 1, 2026
Inspired by “Dawn” (1924) by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1879-1925):
An angel, robed in spotless white,
Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.
Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.
Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Financier
Theodore Dreiser’s villain…
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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 | May 26, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
over-engineered and under-imagined…
Book review:
Collected Poems
by Charles Kenneth “C. K.” Williams (1936-2015)
Won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006
682 pages
Williams was a prolific poet.
His work is relentlessly structural, to the point of being stylized. He’s in love with lines that are almost the same length, and too long for the page. In too many of his Collected Poems, Williams allows every line of text to stray down to the next line, thus abandoning most of the dramatic effects of artful enjambment.
Williams has over-engineered his poetry, for my taste. I tried reading the poems aloud, but that tiresome exercise confirmed my ennui instead of adding some vitality.
For me, whatever Williams was trying to say has been lost in the dusty storeroom where he has neatly boxed and labeled his poems.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
St. Ives, another look…
less than meets the eye
by Robert Louis Stevenson
(a book review)
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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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