We Were Soldiers Once…and Young

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young

…the last battle never comes…

 

 

Book review:

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young

 

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway

New York: Random House, 1992

412 pages

 

Like Moore and Galloway, I salute the brave American and North Vietnamese soldiers who fought and died in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 in the first major combat action of the War in Vietnam.

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young is a bloody testament to the grinding horror of war. It’s too much to read all at once. It has too much death.

A North Vietnamese commander who was on the ground in the valley recalled, many years after the war, that his guiding principle had been “win the first battle.”

He forgot to mention that no one knows how to win the last battle and end all of it.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

Movie review: A Doll’s House

Henrik Ibsen’s classic on abuse…

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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”

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“seeing more”…  it’s the fall, my poem

“seeing more”…  it’s the fall, my poem

losing the green…

 

 

seeing more

 

Again the dried leaves drift as they will,

they find their place,

they give up shape,

they make a final damp.

The trees just seem to let them go,

they waste away to litter,

the wind just seems to let them go,

they lose their green,

they come to earth,

a brittling maze, the huddled leaves,

they cease their swaying,

they cannot catch the sun,

nor make a shade,

they don’t look back

   to scan the sky,

to see the bosky dells,

to gaze at vistas

   that now attract the light…

The leaves have done

   with hiding the thrusting trees

      and the valley views

         and the glades that tempt the doe

            and the empty nests

               that warmed the chicks…

 

November 7, 2025

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

The Reader (Der Vorleser)

Not just a rehash of WWII…

by Bernhard Schlink

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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 welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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the skirr thing, “cloud talk” my poem

the skirr thing, “cloud talk” my poem

clouds sound off…

 

 

cloud talk

 

I guess that clouds may skirr,

they are so far away,

they do stir

   and frolic in the sky,

they may whir,

who hears the sound of clouds?

betimes they clap!

withal, they may purr…

 

October 1, 2025

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

The poetic art of Grace Butcher

Poetry for reading out loud…

         it’s that good

Book review: Child, House, World

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”

 

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

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“we had our time”…   “our time” my poem

“we had our time”…   “our time” my poem

we made our time…

 

 

our time

 

Remembering,

the good time,

the quiet time that lasts so long,

we had our time,

we made our time,

we pushed our time

   to be the days and nights,

we filled our time together,

and now I give such time

   as two could share,

I make more time for you.

 

November 2, 2025

for my dearest one

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Lafayette by Harlow Unger

He was a great man. Also rich and lucky.

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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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“The seasons are quite real”…“Seasoning,” my poem

“The seasons are quite real”…“Seasoning,” my poem

where do they go?

 

 

Seasoning

 

No one really knows,

but so many think they care

   when the summer goes,

and yet, no one ponders “where?”

 

The seasons are quite real,

their cycle is quite strong,

they have unique appeal,

and each has its own song.

 

October 6, 2025

Hingham, MA

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Sea Runners

…it informs, it does not soar…

by Ivan Doig

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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 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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“…on just the one day,” in Cold Mountain

“…on just the one day,” in Cold Mountain

be thankful for more than the leftovers…

 

“They [the godless Yankees] had…

invented a holiday called Thanksgiving,

which Ruby had only recently got news of,

but from what she gathered its features to be,

she found it to contain the mark of a tainted culture.

To be thankful on just the one day.”

 

from Cold Mountain

by Charles Frazier (b1950)

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997

356 pages

Winner of the U. S. National Book Award for Fiction

p. 141

 

Ruby always set her mind straight.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.

 

“The beginning is always today.”

(quote, Mary Shelley)

so get started…

click here

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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