by Richard Subber | Jan 20, 2021 | Joys of reading, Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
think about the galumphing that you’ve known…
I guess Lewis Carroll was thinking about voting when he wrote this…
Jabberwocky
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832-1898)
“Jabberwocky” was published in 1871 in Carroll’s book, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
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Poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2021 All rights reserved.
Brown is the New White, another take on democracy
Steve Phillips is talking about demographics
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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 | Oct 30, 2020 | Language, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
Really, you had to be there…
(my new poem)
Debut
Saucy streaks in brightened sky at dawn
frame enlightened trees on yonder sward.
The arching hues quickly pale
to common blues,
and slide below still darkened earth,
beneath the rim that hides
the great star of day.
March 13, 2016
I was on the road, alone, early, heading downhill, cool in the morning, I was thinking about breakfast…a single break in the tree line offered one glimpse of the hot sauce smeared across the lightening skyline. I didn’t have to stop to make any notes for a new poem. I mentioned everything to my friend at breakfast. The vitality of it was still quivering in my mind when I wrote this little bit later that day. Call it a nature poem. Or call it a love poem, if you’re in love with beauty.
Book review: Cleopatra: A Life
…don’t even think about Gordon Gekko…
click here
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2020 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”
by Richard Subber | Jul 31, 2020 | Language, Tidbits
Bill had a way with words…
“Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care…”
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
I am not the heartiest Shakespeare fan in the world. You may agree with me that, often, a little bit of Shakespeare doth goe a longish way, ‘struth it be…
As well, agree with me that Bill was an indubitable master of the King’s English. Shakespeare added more words—hearty words, dumbfoundingly marvelous words—to our language than anyone else. I dare to say that everyone who speaks English mentions every day something that Shakespeare wrote.
This tidbit from Macbeth is a gift to language lovers everywhere. You don’t have to be a poet to recognize that “…knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care…” is a dazzling and profoundly experiential way to say “sleep heals.”
Anyone who nourishes a poetic muse can see that these words transform mundane familiarity with a domestic art into a vision of tender and urgent longing that fills a gaping hole in the mind.
I wish I’d said that.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2020 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Poems of Robert Frost
he hears those bluebirds talking…
click here
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 25, 2020 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
…relentlessly realistic dialogue…
(book review)
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961)
New York: The Modern Library, 1932.
It’s been a while since I read Hemingway.
A Farewell to Arms is a slow starter, and again I learned to pace myself without too much trouble. The action is restrained but steady, and again I realized gradually that a key element is the relentlessly realistic dialogue.
The American protagonist, Frederick Henry, is involved in every scene. The life of the book is his life. His recurring, desultory involvement in his own life and his role in the Italian Army in World War I is the backdrop of his elaborately recounted relationship with the nurse, Catherine Barkley.
A Farewell to Arms doesn’t really seem to be a war novel. On the other hand, except for brief interludes, the characters really don’t seem to be at peace. For Frederick Henry, it’s an ironic farewell.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2020 All rights reserved.
Book review: Seven Gothic Tales
by Isak Dinesen
lush and memorable stories…
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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 | Jan 1, 2020 | Language, Tidbits
apple breath, unforgettable…
Excerpt from “Joyas Voladoras” (“Flying Jewels”) by Brian Doyle (1956-2017)
as printed in The Sun, January 2020
“So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day,
an hour, a moment…
You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard
and cold and impregnable as you possibly can
and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman’s second glance,
a child’s apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road,
the words I have something to tell you,
a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die,
the brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand
in the thicket of your hair,
the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning
echoing from the kitchen
where he is making pancakes for his children.”
“Joyas Voladoras” also appeared in The American Scholar, Autumn 2004; in Children and Other Wild Animals by Brian Doyle, and in One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle, 2019.
For Brian Doyle, writing was an affair of the heart.
Reading Brian Doyle’s words is pretty much the same thing.
No one can forget a child’s apple breath…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2020 All rights reserved.
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle…
Colin Woodard makes it easier to understand…(book review)
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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 | Apr 5, 2019 | Book reviews, Joys of reading, Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
no need for a treasure map…
Book review:
The Poems of Robert Frost
With an Introductory Essay “The Constant Symbol”
by Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963)
New York: The Modern Library/Random House, Inc., 1946
In his opening essay, Frost says “…poetry…is metaphor, saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another, the pleasure of ulteriority. Poetry is simple made of metaphor.”
My copy of The Poems of Robert Frost is a treasure ship with two old, stained green covers. I’ve been reading it for more than 50 years. It’s a bit beat up, but when I open it, it shines.
I’m not reckless enough to name “my favorite” poem—I keep changing my mind as I read through them again. Frost is a teacher. He has found so many of the right words, and he has put so many of them in the right order.
I always enjoy “The Last Word of a Bluebird (as told to a child).” The Crow carries the little Bluebird’s final message to Lesley. In his low voice he brings word about the north wind and the impending winter cold that drives the Bluebird away. The compassionate bird urges Lesley to be good, and promises that “…perhaps in the spring/He would come back and sing.”
I’m waiting for the spring, and I have a good book to help me pass the time.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2019 All rights reserved.
Book review: The End of Greatness
Aaron David Miller comes up short…
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”
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