by Richard Subber | Nov 12, 2026 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
Keeping one eye on the ducks…
An historical society docent of course doesn’t mind talking about the same stuff with every tour group, and the groups with kids reliably ask the old familiar questions.
The eager 3rd graders making the pilgrimage to the historic district along the Charles River in Natick, MA, prove the point. Sometimes it’s not easy to encourage a sensible understanding of the context of “375 years ago,” but the kids are all too ready to engage in such thinking in their own terms.
In a few years maybe they’ll be ready to expand that thinking just a bit:
Another 3rd grade tour
Well, yes, Anna, this is the same river
the Natick Indians knew in 1651,
it was here, they fished in it,
and, yes, they saw ducks like those
on the other bank over there,
and, no, it’s not too deep,
but, here’s another way to look at it:
the river is new today,
it’s filled with new rain,
it carries a different twig over the dam,
it swirls new bubbles
from the fish we didn’t quite see,
the river has forgotten the feel of a canoe,
forgotten how to turn the mill wheel,
it has learned to ignore
the ever louder sounds that crowd the air,
and it sniffs in surprise
each time new toes are dipped in its currents,
and those ducks on the other bank
are new this year, too.
June 17, 2017
My poem “Another 3rd grade tour” was published in my first collection of 59 poems, Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups.
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 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: A Cold Welcome
The culprit was global cooling,
500 years ago…
by Sam White
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Empyrean: new poems with 57 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 | Nov 7, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
the in-between time…
Interlude
I dither, partly knowing
that the change advances slowly,
in languid tempo,
shuffling images dulled
by the absence of the sun,
partly knowing that an advent
takes good time
and does not give it back,
partly knowing that the season
brings no freshness,
no joy that had been lost,
partly knowing that bald winter
is the portent of the scattering leaves…
I am content to do the waiting.
October 24, 2018
My poem “Interlude” 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, click here
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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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In high meadows: poems abide with 60 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 | Oct 27, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
easy to forget…
…now you don’t
It’s easy to think the word,
easy to think it’s a good idea,
so easy to not think
it’s over there, too far,
easy to forget
it wasn’t any closer yesterday,
easy to be less than “perfect,”
yet, easy to think you see it
in the mirror,
it’s easy to think you see it now…
August 30. 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review:
Great Tales of Terror
and the Supernatural
something horrifying for everyone…
–
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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by Richard Subber | Oct 22, 2026 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
certain particulars…
“A human being has roots
by virtue of his real, active and natural participation
in the life of a community
which preserves in living shape
certain particular treasures of the past
and certain particular expectations of the future…”
Simone Adolphine Weil (1909-1943)
from The Need for Roots 1949
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Reader (Der Vorleser)
Not just a rehash of WWII…
by Bernhard Schlink
–
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 | Oct 20, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
such tiny sounds…
walking along…
walking alone…
moving is pretty much
all there is,
the breathing, of course,
more steps to take,
the all is so close,
the wide fills the space,
striding has such power,
all thoughts are ahead,
the empty hallway beckons,
a stair is only access
to above or below,
it is no place for stopping,
there is a style of silence
and such tiny sounds
as fade each moment,
each passage is a rite,
and traverse offers turns,
the finish line is barely seen,
the final step is like the others…
this time has not been lonely.
August 23, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Seven Gothic Tales
by Isak Dinesen,
lush and memorable stories…
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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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by Richard Subber | Oct 18, 2026 | Human Nature, Reflections
such gentle tendernesses…
Movie review:
Driving Miss Daisy
I guess it’s fair to say that every old lady who can’t drive any more needs a guy like Hoke Colburn to take her where she needs to go.
Even if she’s almost too cranky for words.
Jessica Tandy is the almost inexpressively cranky old lady named Daisy Werthan, who keeps on giving Hoke (played by Morgan Freeman) a run for his money every time he takes her for a run in her big old car down there in Alabama. At first she doesn’t seem to mind much at all that Hoke is a black man. Maybe the fact that she’s an old Jewish lady has something to do with that.
A couple subplots in Driving Miss Daisy (1989, rated PG, 99 minutes) are welcome extensions of what becomes the blossoming relationship between Hoke and Miss Daisy.
You don’t need to work too hard to figure out how the story ends.
You do need to keep watching with love in your heart, right up to the end, so you can feel the luxury of a good ending, and watch one of the best movie endings you’re likely to see: there are almost indescribably gentle tendernesses.
Almost forgot: there is a filmed version of a 2013 Australian theater production of Driving Miss Daisy starring Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones. It’s not as good as the 1989 movie. Ditto for the 1992 TV version starring Joan Plowright and Robert Guillaume.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“…and dipped in folly…”
only Poe knows how to say it…
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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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