by Richard Subber | Feb 24, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
a ripple, a wonder…
Passage
I think to pass the wetlands,
my humdrum steps
in line to cross the fen,
a thoughtless stroll
to reach the other side,
but a ripple in the sward turns my foot,
a wrinkled phosphor turns my eye,
I stand, agape, at a wild portal,
its door ajar.
I am steeped in wonder.
I bethink a new imagination
of the end of day,
I hurry through,
and, oh!…
December 19, 2020
Inspired by “Wilderness Doorway” by Jennifer Lagier, in the Aurorean, Vol. XXV 2020
My poem “Passage” was published in my seventh collection of 53 poems, many waters: more 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 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
The Bard was the lucky one…
by Bill Bryson
–
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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by Richard Subber | Feb 19, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading, Language
Faulks has so many words that mean “ache”…
Book review:
The Girl at the Lion d’Or
by Sebastian Faulks (b1953)
New York: Vintage International/Vintage Books/A Division of Random House, Inc., 1989.
246 pages
Sebastian Faulks writes about the vagaries of life, the daily choices in our lives, the uncountable futures, and the singularity of the past. We think we remember various pasts, and we may struggle to reconcile them.
In The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Faulks invites us to live in the minds of Hartmann and Anne. Sometimes the reader realizes that confusion is in their minds, usually their failures are clear enough, and their successes of the moments must be cherished for their bounty.
Richly Gallic, redolent of the interwar period in Europe, The Girl at the Lion d’Or is a cumulative revelation of Anne (the girl) and a steadily burdensome understanding of the sad hindrances in her life. She comes to love Hartmann, who is ultimately contemptibly weak and viciously temporizing.
I wanted to read faster near the end so I could learn the outcome, but I resisted the impulse.
Faulks makes it worthwhile to read every word. His prose is tenaciously literate and evocative; he has no mere words—he writes passages that invite the reader to understand deeply and to feel deeply.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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 | Feb 17, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Tidbits
a single tone
Singalong
Bright-eyed, he listens,
he smiles,
he hunches in his seat,
he claps after every song,
he knows them all,
he whistles the words
in pretty good rhythm,
the same flat pitch,
a single tone
that matches meter not melody,
he repeats his note,
embraces the song,
his joy,
his music.
October 21, 2025
…someone was playing clunky piano and a half dozen folks
thronged around the piano singing. The whistler sat off to the side.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Feb 12, 2026 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
does grief ever end?…
“If only the consequences of a deed ended
with the grief it caused, she thought,
then one could bear up until it passed.”
from The Girl at the Lion d’Or by Sebastian Faulks
New York: Vintage International/Vintage Books/A Division of Random House, Inc., 1989.
246 pages
p. 139
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Myths of Tet
How people get killed by lies…
by Edwin E. Moïse
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 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 | Feb 10, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
Whence the wisps…
riverine
Whither the barren shapes
that rise from the horizon,
and lose their form
as they climb the sky?
Whence the wisps that fill small voids,
the remnants of those banks,
the shapeless swirls
of pink and white and grey?
They don’t stay, defying names,
always shifting to new frames,
making night into day,
drifting as they will,
the vault is a vast current,
the waifs of one-time clouds
fill and roil the channel,
without sound,
such patient change,
a nameless river over all…
November 26, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A poet is a “maker”
…and it doesn’t have to rhyme…
–
many waters: more poems with 53 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”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Feb 5, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
not so very far away
walking along
With heartful eye
I see you walking in beauty.
I walk your garden,
its far wall of flowers
draws my gaze,
I may see you walking there,
I may join you…
The wall of flowers
may be the end
of the garden,
it may be a boundary,
maybe you are
not so very far away,
maybe you can see me…
September 29, 2025
for my dearest one
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw
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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.
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