“…a siren’s song…”…a new book, my poem

the soprano’s tear-stained kyrie

 

 

Symphony

 

A new book

   somehow sings a siren’s song,

a symphony of words

   that make a new tune,

such delight to open any page,

and hear the mezzo’s lilt,

the soprano’s tear-stained kyrie,

and nod as the basso

   closes a chapter

      with words worth repeating,

and let the chorus turn you

   to another page,

for more words

   that suddenly are not strangers,

such old words

   that make a new song.

 

May 30, 2023

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

“Boil up” and other good manners…

The “Hobo Ethical Code” is worth a quick read.

click here

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.

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“…the great brutes…”  “Revelation,” my poem

“…the great brutes…”  “Revelation,” my poem

behind the frosted mist…

 

 

Revelation

 

 

Beyond my domain, I leaned ahead

   to cross the slope

      under a brazen sky.

In the chill of dawn, I stopped.

 

The apparition…

A bull appeared.

 

He turned his horns to me,

showed no fear,

no gaze of knowing,

no sentient nod,

he stepped away…

 

Another creature shambled near,

regarded me with innocence,

and scarcely paused,

his brawny flank rippling slowly

   as he passed on…

 

I stretched my eye

   to the scant egress

      of these beasts with iron mien.

Indeed, I had not crossed the path

   of a rambling herd.

 

I chanced to find

   the portal of an ancient furnace of the gods,

who took such wild ores as they desired,

and stoked their smokeless fires

   behind the frosted mist,

and conjured life,

and smelted the great brutes—

   cold-forged in the chill of dawn—

      who stepped heavily across my path

         and did not mistake me

            for their kind.

 

January 7, 2020

Inspired by this quotation:

“I had seen a herd of buffalo, 129 of them, come out of the morning mist under a copper sky, one by one, as if the dark and massive, iron-like animals with the mighty horizontally swung horns were not approaching but were being created before my eyes and sent out as they were finished.”

by Isak Dinesen

in Out of Africa (1938)

 

My poem “Revelation” was published in my sixth collection of 73 poems, Above all: Poems of dawn and more.

You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),

or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

“Revelation” also was published in my fifth collection of 53 poems, My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems.

You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),

or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Seven Gothic Tales

by Isak Dinesen,

lush and memorable stories…

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

her cherub chatter…“and more…” my poem

her cherub chatter…“and more…” my poem

Dear, dear sprite…

 

 

and more…

 

Her lightest step is all she needs

   to round the garden in her tour,

she makes no stand,

and fills the air with cherub chatter,

she makes scant imprint in the earth…

 

The elfin miss delights in play,

so wild, winsome,

willing to sing

   what happiness she feels,

we little know its measure

   nor the nature of her laugh, her smile,

the chirp of her siren sound.

 

Dear, dear sprite, she hops and bounces,

we scarcely reck the eldritch stuff,

what seems of perverse end

   does not sustain a care

      beyond the moment’s wisp of dread

         that’s clapped away in her dance.

 

Her lightest step is all she needs

   to round the garden in her tour,

she makes no stand,

she flutters, frisks in merriment,

and makes her joy…

 

June 12, 2022

Inspired by the child, Pearl, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

How does a poem end?

Finis,” my thoughts (my poem)

click here

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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Scaramouche…boy gets girl…book review

Scaramouche…boy gets girl…book review

the good old way…

 

 

Book review:

Scaramouche

 

Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950)

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1921

392 pages

 

These people talk to each other. It’s face-to-face communications. They pay attention to body language and what you do with your face.

Scaramouche ends the way you think it’s going to end: boy gets girl.

But there’s a lot of road to travel before we get to that ending—I think there’s only one reference to a heaving bosom—there is fastidious bad language, and lots of casual use of Latin—there’s a lot of hand kissing, which is something we could do more of these days.

Sabatini was a prolific writer and he wrote this romance novel the way it should be written. The reader gets an eyeful and an earful and a heartful of genuine romance, with all the words that make it work.

It’s still possible to make love in the good old way they did it in the 18th century. Read all about it.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

The Scarlet Letter, victim of Hollywood

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s version is best

click here

 

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

The snow, its vagrant hues…“Purely,” my poem

The snow, its vagrant hues…“Purely,” my poem

take another look…

 

 

Purely

 

The fallen snow lifts my eyes

as high as everything,

it cloaks all, this gentle tableau,

so white, so grey,

so mottled white in the mix

   of so many of the plainest colors,

so many hints of vagrant hues,

so quiet,

such stillness,

such cold,

such wonted white,

all, all…

 

December 11, 2019

It was all just there, free for the looking…

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: A Pirate Looks at Fifty

   Jimmy Buffett,

      hijinksed,

         slobbering,

              the whole deal…

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

“whisper codas in the dark…”…“Singing,” my poem

“whisper codas in the dark…”…“Singing,” my poem

night songs

 

 

Singing

 

We explore our song of love,

with words that find our joys,

we trace our rhythms and a key,

we make new verses,

solve new rhymes,

and whisper codas in the dark,

and murmur of beginnings

   as we drift to sleep.

 

February 28, 2023

For Barb, my dearest one

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Old Friends (book review)

Tracy Kidder tells truth about old age…

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

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