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
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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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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…
–
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 4, 2026 | History, Reflections, Tidbits, World history
OK, it’s not “Take Five”…
Music to Nikkal’s ears
It’s been about 3,500 years since anyone dusted off a lyre to play this Hurrian hymn (H6) dedicated to the Akkadian goddess Nikkal-wa-Ib, the goddess of orchards whose name means “Great Lady and Fruitful.”
The words and music were discovered about 70 years ago in the ruins of Ugarit, an ancient Syrian city. It took about 20 years to interpret the inscriptions on the cuneiform tablets.
Michael Levy, a musician/composer whose specialty is ancient musical instruments, has embedded the original melody (listen here) in this composition with several themes, performed on a replica of an ancient lyre.
It’s not “Lay Down Sally” and it’s not “White Christmas” and it’s not “Take Five.”
It is an intriguing offering of what the Akkadians might have listened to when they were in the groove, when they were celebrating the festival of Nikkal.
It’s so easy for this music of the Bronze Age to survive for centuries.
It’s so easy to listen.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle
…what meets the eye…
–
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”
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by Richard Subber | Sep 24, 2026 | Reflections, Tidbits
you can imagine dancing…
“As we age, we are bound to find comfort
from the notion that it takes generations
for a way of life to fade.
We are familiar
with the songs our grandparents favored, after all,
even though we never danced to them ourselves.”
from A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles (b. 1964)
New York: Penguin Books, 2016
462 pages
p. 144
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Snow Goose
…sensual drama, eminently poetic…
by Paul Gallico
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Sep 22, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
teasing for recognition
facta
She has a plan.
The cotton balls are vital,
she keeps a handy supply of
cardboard and colored paper,
tape is essential,
tape is the key
to all exactness in the doing,
speed is not exactly the entire reality
but deliberate haste is her style,
she builds with mute devotion to the outcome,
identity is not so needful
as function and connection,
her creatures are elegant monstrosities,
her temples are sturdy elaborations of design
and form that find barely imagined boundaries,
her hybrids tease for recognition
in their own dimensions,
her work is her success, her doing, her design.
She’s busy, she never looks up…
July 21, 2019
If you have good stuff, you can make anything.
It helps if you can imagine everything.
My poem “facta” was published in my eighth collection of 57 poems, Empyrean: new 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 2026 All rights reserved.
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
heroic, the way it was…(movie review)
–
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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