by Richard Subber | Oct 10, 2024 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
talking to the animals…
Cat talk
She’s doing her cat thing,
nothing better to do.
Maybe that’s true,
but she won’t say it’s so,
she won’t budge,
and she won’t hunch a shoulder
in that warm spot,
and she won’t blink a yes or no
when you ask
the simplest thing,
or tilt her head
when you say hello,
she keeps her peace,
she stares as you bend down
to stroke her head,
she waits while you think about
leaving her alone,
maybe she can talk,
but doesn’t want to.
July 9, 2024
“Cat talk” was inspired by “Undercover Agent,” a marvelous painting by Jan Byrne
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Comanche Empire
it’s that other story of the American West…
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Oct 6, 2024 | Language, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
…it soaked the upright apes…
I’m intrigued by the poetic adventure of ascribing human attributes to things in the natural world.
That afternoon, there was a potent storm.
I imagined that many of those big fat raindrops had pounded the old driveway many times over the years—
you know, rain comes down, and water evaporates up…
Maybe raindrops have favorite places…
It looks like rain
With ancient fury, the rain comes,
stoked again by antique thunders,
kindled again by strokes
that sear the sagging sky.
Old Zeus once stirred this brawl
of sound and spark
and wind and wet,
he little knew his power
to brew eternal cycles
of Sturm und Drang.
This is the same descent of rain
that soaked the upright apes,
and the pharaohs,
and the Thracian warriors,
and the Goths, the Viking raiders,
the samurai, the Chiricahua children,
the hardy gauchos,
the slaves in every time,
and the beans of every summer.
This rain has filled this air before,
these heavy drops
have always done such drenching,
they know their way to earth,
they know just what to do.
July 8, 2016
My poem “It looks like rain” was published in my second collection of 47 new free verse and haiku poems, Seeing far: Selected poems. You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, click here
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: Forced Founders
by Woody Holton
The so-called “Founding Fathers”
weren’t the only ones
who helped to shape our independence…
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 24, 2024 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
we share awareness
Occurrence
The unseen owl, that one call.
Nothing more.
What was his need? What desire?
Was it a song, so brief?
It pulsed the still night air,
a reaching sound,
meant for some creature to hear,
and I am near.
I call out my one note.
It is no answer, but affirmation:
owl, you are there, I am here.
I think to open my mouth again,
but at once I understand:
my one note is “I” —
invited by the owl’s like call.
I know the creature has heard me,
and now we share awareness,
a known, a kindred comfort.
We accept the reassurance of echo,
an essence of sensation and being,
the wonder of what we cannot see
that is yet real.
Together we call out our declaration,
in these moments we feel secure
against the near boundary of the unknown.
January 12, 2016
“Occurrence” was published online on March 26, 2020, in Literati Magazine
My poem “Occurrence” was published in my sixth collection of 73 poems, Above all: Poems of dawn and more.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
My poem “Occurrence” was published in my third collection of 64 poems, In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: Sketches by Boz
…those Miss Willises sure are a scream…
by Charles Dickens
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 19, 2024 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
in Neander time
empyrean
She walked each day
beneath the great above,
she had no word for it,
she had no need for a sound
to name what everyone saw,
from time to time she looked up,
this woman who searched for berries
and drew water from the Neander,
she saw the high colors, the nomad clouds,
the bright specks in the night,
she knew the certain track
of the star of day,
all beyond her reach, beyond her ken,
she knew their home was in the great above,
she had no reverent word for it,
she reached for another berry,
without thinking, she looked up…
June 8, 2024
it’s been there for a long time…
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Map of Knowledge
a slo-mo version of Fahrenheit 451
by Violet Moller
–
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.
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 17, 2024 | Book reviews, Books, Books Commentary, Joys of reading, Language, Reflections
“…and even make us laugh…”
“When writers make us shake our heads
with the exactness of their prose and their truths,
and even make us laugh about ourselves or life…”
Anne Lamott (b1954)
in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
p. 237
The “exactness” part truly is the hard part.
I try to make the meaning of my poems so clear that they wake up your mind.
Then you can laugh about it, shout about it…
* * * * * *
Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Poems of Robert Frost
Bob hears bluebirds talking…
–
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”
* * * * * *
by Richard Subber | Sep 12, 2024 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
my final future
now then…
The unknowable future
has been around for a long time,
it is,
it will be,
the mystery is what, not if.
I realize new truths.
I’m closer to my future
than I used to be,
I’m closer to my final future.
I think more about tomorrow,
I think more about today.
Sweet futures can become sweet nows,
the nows I can know.
I can choose my next now,
I do not know tomorrow’s future,
I will live it in good time.
May 11, 2024
* * * * * *
My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
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 always welcome—just tell me what you’re thinking.
* * * * * *
