by Richard Subber | Mar 25, 2023 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
a kind of music of the spheres…
Overture
I stood awhile in prescient dark,
faint sounds of night
were near and far,
a rustling song,
a sylvan chord,
a tiny thrum,
and more—
a downbeat for the dawn to come,
scant chorus rising,
I whispered hallowed words
to make a coda,
and waited for the star of day.
January 21, 2023
Inspired by “Behind Stowe” (1927) by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
A poem about the right thing
…and the lesser incarnation…
“Vanity”
–
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 30, 2022 | Book reviews, Books, Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
good story telling…
Book review:
The Complete Poems of Sarah Orne Jewett
by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)
New York: Ironweed Press, 1999
85 pages
It is a solid, pleasant experience to read the poems of Sarah Orne Jewett.
Mostly her imagery in The Complete Poems is not exalted, and mostly her insights are not life-changing, but she is a compelling story teller and she invites the reader to see what she sees.
That’s good.
Some excerpts:
“And so, across the empty miles
Light from my star shines. Is it, dear,
Your love has never gone away?
I said farewell and—kept you here”
From “Together”
———————————————-
“The nearest daisies looked at me
Because they heard me call;
And they told each other what I had said,
Though they did not hear it all.
And I stood there wishing for you,
All alone on the hill;
While far below were the fields asleep,
And above, the sky so still.”
From “A Night in June”
———————————————-
“I saw the worn rope idle hang
Beside me in the belfry brown.
I gave the bell a solemn toll—
I rang the knell for Gosport town.”
From “On Star Island”
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.
A glimpse of the millennial dawn…
witness to the song of the sea…
a nature poem
“Chanson de mer”
–
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 | Nov 18, 2022 | Language, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
my restless eye
Whither…
I do not see the next turn in my road.
I know there will be choosing,
I know that I cannot turn
both left and right
as need there be,
that some roads
will be traveled only once,
that in my living
I may turn back, betimes,
but the journey is always different
in the second passage.
The known past dims,
and my unknown future
will brighten with every dawn,
and I know there is no certain map
of my next steps—
I am content to round the next turn,
and so to look ahead
to spy the turning
that invites my restless eye.
January 12, 2020
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Cradle Place
by Thomas Lux
poems wrapped in a wet rag…
–
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 | Oct 12, 2022 | Human Nature, Language, My poetry, Poetry
…the vanishing point…
Love has a name
She imagined bliss in the dark
on the cool sand.
He numbly spoke his part
in a lovers’ quarrel.
She offered him so many futures together,
paired, and shared.
She offered one exotic future
in her ruby world.
She heard the lovers’ music,
not knowing that he danced
to familiar rhythms
without hearing the tune
that chimed in her heart.
She offered him their futures,
but he ensnared that single one
that would make them one,
he could not release it
to her nurture and her joyful care,
he stole the ruby future and ran away.
He left a lonely rose
and a note with two words
that she could not accept,
and he rushed to the vanishing point
on his horizon.
She held his note, signed with his “G”…
she stared at her empty horizon,
with barely hot tears,
she shuddered in the first searing sadness,
knowing that she had never spoken his name.
Feb 26, 2021
Inspired by The Good Karma Hospital, a 2017 TV series that ran for three seasons. In the last episode, Dr. Ruby Walker learns that her love affair with Dr. Gabriel Varma isn’t a love affair, and is only another example of Dr. Varma’s pathetic inability to make a commitment.
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle…
Colin Woodard makes it easier to understand…(book review)
–
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 | Aug 26, 2022 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
…makes the fairy filigrees…
The water way
The vaulted glen preserves the cold calm,
enwraps the stillness,
enfolds the shrouded bowers,
hushes the tiny creatures
that do not sleep,
and graces the febrile stream
that ice cannot subdue,
the frosted flowing stream
that falls from freckled rock
to ledge to pool,
and foams awhile,
and pauses, turns,
and makes the fairy filigrees
that hang in air,
and finds its familiar course
in channels that defy
the glaze of winter.
September 7, 2019
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shawshank Redemption
A world I do not want to know…
by Stephen King
–
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 | Aug 6, 2022 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Language
language is social cement…
Book review:
Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language
by Robin Dunbar (b1947)
British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist
London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1996
Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language is a fascinating, comprehensive account of how human beings got language and what it’s good for.
Hint: our ape-like ancestors figured out that grooming wasn’t enough to maintain their social relationships in their reproductive groups, and language made it possible to increase group size (for safety) by substituting for the physical contact of grooming.
Dunbar offers detailed and persuasive guidance on how we manage our social and political (organizational) relationships, and shows that groups that are larger than 150 individuals are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to thrive in and manage. If your work group comprises more than 150 persons, roughly speaking, your boss can’t manage the group and team work isn’t feasible.
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle…
Colin Woodard makes it easier to understand…(book review)
–
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”
* * * * * *
