by Richard Subber | Jan 14, 2025 | Language, My poetry, Poetry
the horses lost their jobs
It was red
What’s left are the last thin hunks
of that heroic red machine,
planted in the front field,
not going anywhere,
still pointed to its last destination.
This is a marvel of machine,
a completely rusted spectacle of progress,
form invites quick memories
of function…
It doesn’t tempt the kids,
there are no pedals to push,
the big seat is too high
and it’s too rough for bouncing,
and it’s too far from the thick rusty wheel
with no horn,
the big rugged tractor tires
turned one last time
when the moon and the stars
and the sun were younger.
Once it was a noisy monster,
the farmer called the thing “Bab,”
it scared the horses who lost their jobs,
it scattered the goats and the hens,
the pigs went rooting
on the other side of the barn.
Old farmers remember their first ride
on their magic new machines
that chugged everywhere, pulled anything,
each tractor needed its own tool box,
half metal stuff, half mystery stuff,
and the farmers knew
how to keep them going,
and they knew the secret kick
that finished many repair jobs.
This rig’s driver never used
a couple of the rods
and a few of the knobby connectors,
and he never wondered
why he didn’t know
what they were for.
The spectral farmer in baggy overalls
who starts to fill the tank each night
always struggles with the cap,
and always decides to wait…
October 27, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shakespeare’s Wife
Germaine Greer went overboard a bit…
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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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jan 9, 2025 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
transitions
morph
Another leaf drops from the tree.
Watch it skittering down.
The next leaf will fall
to another bare spot,
a new herald of the new season.
Like you, the tree is changing—
Was it your self who saw
the first leaf fall?
Is it the same tree now,
as afternoon begins?
Yon artist arrays a new canvas
on her gear,
she sets the first one aside, in view,
she thinks to paint the tree again
with more autumnal hues,
she swabs her brush
and makes a bobbing leaf,
intent on making it real—
The tree gives up the leaf she saw,
a new bird perches on the highest twig,
when will she know
that she’s painting a different tree?
will she know that her other self
was the painter in the morning?
November 3, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
For a change of pace,
read this book review
of one woman’s desperate childhood,
The Homeplace by Marilyn Nelson
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Jan 4, 2025 | My poetry, Poetry
Blaze
It’s easy to be in love.
There is no burden in loving.
Deep love is simplest joy,
delicate love cannot be bound.
The singing is so free,
and the eager truth is clear:
I can walk on fire for you,
each next step so easy…
July 13, 2021
Inspired by Melissa Etheridge singing “I’m the Only One”
…for my dearest one
My poem “Blaze” 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”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shawshank Redemption
A world I do not want to know…
by Stephen King
–
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 | Jan 2, 2025 | 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.
Moon mission
Spectral moon,
solitaire in the night sky,
your dirty face,
your bright edge—
the cavemen looked at you,
and wondered.
August 21, 2024
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Old Friends (book review)
Tracy Kidder tells truth about old age…
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Dec 29, 2024 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
into tomorrow…
Rocks and ripples
I tossed that rock far out,
in the middle,
not as far as I could throw,
but out there,
and then I watched the ripples,
in a wind-shaped circle,
fading to dimples soon enough
but not quite wiffling into nothing,
and I could see, for a moment,
how that rounding pulse
would keep going
after I turned away…
August 22, 2019
Inspired by “Read my rocks” by Ellie Shumaker, age 13
in 2019 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
My poem “Rocks and ripples” was published in my fourth collection of 55 poems, As with another eye: Poems of exactitude.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Dec 24, 2024 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry
doing what’s right…
A man’s job
I won’t sell my trees.
The balsams would go quickly
at “cut your own” prices,
but I tell my neighbors, again this year,
there will be no cutting
on this old slope that spills down
to my little barn.
Day is darkening,
and I move among my trees.
This one, bent and broken
in last winter’s snows,
has grown,
the birds of spring may nest
in its green spaces…
and now, from below,
the boy climbs to me, his head down,
his father’s axe in hand,
he has changed since his father died,
he tries to do a man’s work,
he will have little time
for baseball with the other boys.
“I told Momma I would find a tree,
to make a Christmas for Becky and the baby.”
So.
He holds his axe in both hands,
and he stands straight in my field.
I extend my arm.
“Go find a good one,
I can help you carry it home.”
December 1, 2018
My poem “A man’s job” 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”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut
“Write a six line poem, about anything…
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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”
* * * * * *
