“Love has a name,” a ruby future (poem)

“Love has a name,” a ruby future (poem)

…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.

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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)

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”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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“…the frosted flowing stream…” (“The water way,” poem)

“…the frosted flowing stream…” (“The water way,” poem)

…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

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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

click here

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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nose against the glass…”Life lesson,” my poem

nose against the glass…”Life lesson,” my poem

to get closer…

 

 

Life lesson

 

Why do we unlearn the joy

   of pushing against the glass?

Why do we let slip that impulse

   to get closer

      to the fabulous new thing

         just outside the window,

to lean in to that magic scene,

to get close enough to whisper

   in that new squirrel’s ear?

 

Why do we learn to hold back

   just that bit,

so a breath on a frosty pane

   will hide the wonder?

 

Yesterday he pressed as close as he could.

 

Today I see again that small smudge,

   his curious nose must have been cold

      for a few moments.

I know he has so much to learn,

but some of it can wait for another season…

 

January 2, 2020

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The House by the Sea

May Sarton’s travels, in her mind…

click here

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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Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (book review)

Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (book review)

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.

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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)

click here

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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“…watchers in the crystal sphere…”—”Night watch,” a poem

“…watchers in the crystal sphere…”—”Night watch,” a poem

“…a masque of shades…”

 

 

Night watch

 

Waiting in winter

   is easier done in darkness,

night’s hours pass,

for the lone watcher,

en passant, to ease the time,

a masque of shades,

neither droll nor dread.

 

Withal, the ice shines cold,

the snowy crust shines hard,

and star shine lights the way for

   Orion and Aquarius

      and Cassiopeia and the rest,

these watchers in the crystal sphere

   will guard the transit of the moon,

will do for friends who pass the time

   but will not tarry past the dawn.

 

November 5, 2018

Inspired by “Field,” by Roberta Marggraff in the Aurorean, Fall-Winter 2018-2019

My poem “Night watch” was published in my fourth collection of 55 poems, As with another eye: Poems of exactitude. You can buy it and my other poetry books on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, click here

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.

 

A poem about the right thing

…and the lesser incarnation…

“Vanity”

click here

 –
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 always welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut

“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut

I won’t show you mine…

 

 

You can learn something from Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007)

Now, Vonnegut isn’t my favorite writer. Yes, of course, I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five. OK, that puts me in the “I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five” category. To paraphrase Woody Allen, the novel has to do with World War II and stuff…

OK, sorry about that downer intro. I don’t incline to sound like a Vonnegut fan when I say that the following anecdote is a glorious insight that moves me.

In 2006, shortly before his death, Vonnegut gave some advice to five New York City high school guys who had written to him:

“. . . Here’s an assignment for tonight,

and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it:

Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed . . .

Make it as good as you possibly can.

But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing.

Don’t show it or recite it to anybody,

not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them . . .

You will find that you have already been

         gloriously rewarded for your poem.

You have experienced becoming,

         learned a lot more about what’s inside you,

                    and you have made your soul grow.”

 

Oh yes, I’m writing my poem now.

Don’t show me yours.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2022 All rights reserved.

 

“…watchers in the crystal sphere…”

”Night watch,” a poem

“…friends who pass the time…”

click here

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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