by Richard Subber | Dec 31, 2023 | Reflections, Tidbits
I avoided reading any of the “Best of 2023…” stuff
because I figure I can do a lot better by hitching my wagon to one of my stars
and stepping right through the door into 2024.
OK, you can tell that I don’t mind mixing metaphors.
Just let me say this:
There are a lot of reasons to do things right—or more right—in 2024.
I’m committed to do what I can, according to my lights.
I’m going to try to grab all of my chances to do something good.
That’s my way of saying Happy New Year.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 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”
by Richard Subber | Dec 30, 2023 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
remember the urgent joy…
no mo’
…of course there’s no harm
to thrill in the doing of the thing,
“the last time” are tempting words
that rush too quickly to my lips,
I hear their echo
as I rush to the finish,
and only then
do I wonder
why I don’t remember
the urgent joy
of the first time,
and the rich learning
of all the other times,
and now I see
that the last time
is, of course, a rare moment,
but I want so little of it…
September 19, 2023
Cutting the grass used to be a thing.
I don’t miss it.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Loneliness beyond understanding…
by Herman Melville
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 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 | Dec 19, 2023 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
I’m waiting…
Upon a time
For now time is my world.
My world of things exists in time,
my world of places gives the things a spot,
allotted time gives up
the passing lifetime things renew,
to keep a place
in pace with me.
I know not how to stop nor when nor where,
nor do I care to know.
I conjure places, hold a thing,
and snatch the time for it to be.
They all belong to me when I’m alone.
But soon each place
will bear your stance and mine,
we’ll share our hoarded time.
We’ve cached secure in clouds a thing called love
and, then, two smiles will burn the clouds away.
November 18, 1967
Bethlehem, PA
For my dearest one
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: Ethan Frome
not being satisfied with less…
by Edith Wharton
–
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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Here’s what you’ll find on my website:
my poetry in free verse and 5-7-5 haiku format—nature poems, love poems, poems about grandchildren, and poems for reading aloud—written in a way that invites you to know, as precisely as possible, what’s going on in my mind and in my imagination;
thoughtful book reviews that offer an exceptional critique of the book instead of a simple book summary;
my reflections on the words, art, and wisdom of famous and not-so-famous people, and occasional comments on human nature, and
luscious examples of my love affair with words.
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by Richard Subber | Dec 14, 2023 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
not much to talk about
torpor
the fen is shrouded,
fogged, under a wan sky,
green huddled among the brown,
token of a pallid day,
subdued, stilled, mute…
October 11, 2022
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
The Liberty Bell, a book review
Historian Gary Nash tells it all
–
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 | Dec 12, 2023 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Reflections
be a willing reader…
Book review:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
Alison Anderson, trans.
New York: Europa Editions, 2006
325 pages
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a logophile’s book.
Really.
If you can read this book without keeping your dictionary close at hand, I want to shake your hand.
Barbery has written a stunning first-person interaction of two characters who could easily be separate books. (Distinguishing fonts makes it easy to know who’s talking.)
The Hedgehog is Renée Michel, an almost unflappable and serenely superior person who pretends to be a simple old concierge in a building almost filled with rich folks who don’t care what she thinks about. She thinks about plenty that would never occur to them.
The second primary persona is Paloma, a barely-out-of-her-tweens girl who thinks she wants to commit suicide but lives an overwhelmingly fantastic life in her head and becomes Renée’s friend.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a literate, penetrating, philosophical, compassionate revelation of two great minds who connect and spiral into ever more fancies for the willing reader’s delight.
Be a willing reader.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Girl at the Lion d’Or
Sebastian Faulks is tenaciously literate,
richly Gallic…
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”
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by Richard Subber | Dec 10, 2023 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
“…a single hour…”
“And which of you by being anxious
can add a single hour to his span of life?”
Luke 12:25 (English Standard Version)
Another way of saying this is:
Pick battles you can win.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Myths of Tet
How people get killed by lies…
by Edwin E. Moïse
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 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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