by Richard Subber | Dec 5, 2023 | Human Nature, Language, Reflections, Theater and play reviews
losing sight of right and wrong…
Movie review:
Dangerous Liaisons
Dangerous Liaisons (1988, rated R, 119 minutes) is not a garden of delight.
If you aspire to a working understanding of good and evil, you could do worse than listen to the riveting chatter of the leading personae: the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich). They choose each word with careful, deliciously ribald, austerely cruel, and domineering intent.
This is a boundless exposé of the worst elements—of human intrigue, self indulgence, hubris, vaunting egos, and careless poaching of souls—that masquerade as amour.
Dangerous Liaisons is an ultimately degraded experience for both the characters and viewers, who must condemn the marquise and the vicomte for so many lives destroyed…death is an anticlimax in Dangerous Liaisons.
The marquise and the vicomte are burdened with a moral framework that shuns the absolute—they have unimaginably unsatisfied desires, and no intellectual imperative of right and wrong.
They swirl through their lives, casually jousting with each other as they amuse themselves in controlling the fates of other men and women, without realizing that they are not in control of their own fates.
The movie is based on a 1782 French epistolary novel titled Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, available in English translation.
* * * * * *
Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Dirty Dancing (1987) (movie review)
Oh baby, baby, baby…
–
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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Nov 18, 2023 | Language, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
s’agit d’amour…
Nuit
La nuit me dit,
”Mon cher, qu’as tu?”
et je réponds,
“Rien…mais oui,
encore je pense à elle
qui est ma chère depuis…”
Ma vie en toute,
mon âme, ma femme,
le même pour moi…
S’agit d’amour, cher noir,
la nuit qui est tout seul…
et moi aussi.
1968
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut
“Write a six line poem, about anything…
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Nov 14, 2023 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
where do you belong?
natura
I march in the hills,
I sleep in grassy vales,
the proud peaks relent, betimes,
they hold my footsteps
in high places,
and I look down again
on sylvan slopes
that beck to me
and open to my passing through,
I wet my feet in waters
with no name,
I rest in bosky dells,
and I sing a forest song…
I belong to all this beauty.
July 10, 2023
inspired by “Ascent” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, as published July 9, 2023, on her website, A Hundred Falling Veils
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Oops, Columbus didn’t “discover” America
…but he got close…
–
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 | Oct 31, 2023 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
sassy, salty, and singular
Book review:
The Kingdom of the Kid:
Growing Up In The Long-Lost Hamptons
by Geoff Gehman (b1958)
State University of New York Press, Albany, NY 2013
238 pages
I stepped outside my comfort zone to read Geoff Gehman’s memoir about some of his childhood years in the “long-lost Hamptons.” I’m glad I did.
If you have a particular point of view about memoirs, either for or against, try to forget it and pick up The Kingdom of the Kid, and just settle in for the ride.
This is more than a prosaic romp through childhood memories, it is a paean celebrating a child’s-eye-view of life.
Gehman is a writer who likes to “linger over words,” that’s my kind of writer. His prose, his stories, his memories…sassy, salty and singular.
Gehman is a poet, too. Repeatedly, he offers lush insight into his industrious youth, his friendships with the young and the old, his affinity for the place, the “long-lost Hamptons” where Geoff and his pals spent the good old days.
He describes the scene as he observed mourners in the Wainscott Cemetery:
“…I sat on my bike in the school parking lot, shaded by grand sycamores, and watched visitors treat the cemetery with reverence. They placed flowers by graves, prayed on their knees, cried on their backs. They stared at the sky, held séances in broad daylight, eavesdropped on eternity.
“Those pilgrims taught me the morality of mortality. Without asking anyone I learned to walk around the stones, to respect the dead as if they were alive.”
In every chapter he offers another little piece of his heart.
The Kingdom of the Kid is good reading. Real good.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bridges of Madison County
If you’re looking for
highly stoked eroticism
and high-rolling lives
that throw off sparks when they touch,
look elsewhere.
by Robert Waller
–
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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Oct 21, 2023 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
loving a creature…
Learning
She was happily proud
to show me the new chicks,
her loving hands firmly full
of the downy creatures,
she taught me how
to gently stroke them,
my hand, suddenly,
it seemed too hard
for touching,
I stretched one finger
to the tiny heads,
I wondered how those peeps felt
in that tiny moment
of such awful risk
that they couldn’t imagine,
I wanted to whisper,
in gentling words,
that there is no danger
in her warm hands
or my careful caress.
May 18, 2023
“Learning: was inspired by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s “Springing” on May 17, 2023, on her website, click here
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
–
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 always welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Oct 10, 2023 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
joy uplifts each dance
empathic
I think of you in a new way…
you are one of the greeters,
you help the new ones to find old friends,
you freely give so many smiles,
sing the tunes that fill the air,
you sway with rhythms
that join so many spirits
and spin so many steps,
you show good heart
when easy joy uplifts each dance,
stepping up to the awkward ones
to tell the secret words of love
that all can share,
you lead the way
to radiant halls
and precious gardens
where all can stand together
and make so much music
that never stops…
June 20, 2023
For my dearest one
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier, he reaches deep…
–
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.
* * * * * *
