the true, the beautiful…

the true, the beautiful…

it’s there, look around…

 

 

“Eighty percent of everything

that is true and beautiful

can be experienced

on any ten-minute walk.”

 

from Somehow: Thoughts on Love

by Anne Lamott

New York: Riverhead Books, 2024

194 pages

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Bridges of Madison County

If you’re looking for

highly stoked eroticism

and high-rolling lives

that throw off sparks when they touch,

look elsewhere.

by Robert Waller

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

singing the easy tunes…“la cage,” my poem

singing the easy tunes…“la cage,” my poem

I’ve seen other creatures…

 

 

la cage

 

I could be wrong,

I think I’m a bird.

 

It’s hard to put it into words

   ‘cause I can’t talk

      in exactly the way

         the big creature does.

 

The creature can’t sing, of course,

I’ve sung the easy tunes

   so many times,

but all I hear from the creature

   is “la la la”

      and “mmmh mmmh,”

without a speck of joy.

 

The creature gives me food,

although the seeds are really old

   and the bugs are already dead!

and nectar?

oh well, I’ll keep waiting…

 

The hairy thing that barks

   doesn’t jump up any more,

I stopped being scared.

It’s a good thing I’m up so high!

 

I did get to fly once

   when the creature

      forgot to shut the little door,

but I didn’t go far,

my little arms got tired,

then I moved around three times

   and then the creature grabbed me—

it didn’t hurt—

and now I’m back inside.

 

I can see through the wall,

the sun is sometimes bright,

the sticks with greenish things

   go up and down,

and back and forth,

I’ve seen other creatures

   that sort of look like me,

I heard one sing my song.

 

A while ago, when it was dark

   I think I had a thought…

I’m sitting here… 

I can’t remember it.

 

December 7, 2024

inspired by “A Caged Bird” by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)

excerpt:

“High at the window in her cage

    The old canary flits and sings,

  Nor sees across the curtain pass

     The shadow of a swallow’s wings.”

*   *   *   *   *   *

My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Shantung Compound

They didn’t care much

   about each other…

by Langdon Gilkey

click here

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”

 

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

*   *   *   *   *   *

“before it’s light…”…my poem

“before it’s light…”…my poem

one more round…

 

 

before it’s light…

 

It’s not quite day,

and I haven’t completely

   shrugged sleep from my thoughts,

 

I’m thinking this is the short time,

this is “get started” time,

this is the gossamer moment

   for pulling on the bright shirt

      and welcoming one more day,

one more morning,

one more round of life,

one more chance

   to get it mostly right,

 

I’m thinking nothing new here,

just like yesterday,

do good things,

get ready for tomorrow.

 

October 2, 2024

 

…waiting for breakfast at Easter’s Country Kitchen, Hingham, MA

 

Published in Creative Inspirations, Jan-Feb 2025 issue

*   *   *   *   *   *

My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Hag-Seed

by Margaret Atwood…it ain’t Shakespeare

click here

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”

 

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

*   *   *   *   *   *

“…the prayers of the millions…”…John Steinbeck’s view

“…the prayers of the millions…”…John Steinbeck’s view

the humanity…

 

 

“Ah, the prayers of the millions,

   how they must fight and destroy each other

      on their way to the throne of God.”

 

We always think of our prayers as singular events…

 

 

From Tortilla Flat in The Short Novels of John Steinbeck

by John Steinbeck with an introduction by Joseph Henry Jackson

New York: The Viking Press, orig. copy. 1953, 1963.

527 pages

quote from p. 18

*   *   *   *   *   *

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Address Unknown

A friendship corrupted by Nazi hatred in WWII

by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

the tree, you, the artist…“morph,” my poem

the tree, you, the artist…“morph,” my poem

transitions

 

 

morph

 

Another leaf drops from the tree.

Watch it skittering down.

The next leaf will fall

   to another bare spot,

a new herald of the new season.

 

Like you, the tree is changing—

 

Was it your self who saw

   the first leaf fall?

Is it the same tree now,

as afternoon begins?

 

Yon artist arrays a new canvas

   on her gear,

she sets the first one aside, in view,

she thinks to paint the tree again

   with more autumnal hues,

she swabs her brush

   and makes a bobbing leaf,

intent on making it real—

 

The tree gives up the leaf she saw,

a new bird perches on the highest twig,

when will she know

   that she’s painting a different tree?

will she know that her other self

   was the painter in the morning?

 

November 3, 2024

*   *   *   *   *   *

My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

For a change of pace,

read this book review

of one woman’s desperate childhood,

The Homeplace by Marilyn Nelson

click here

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”

 

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

*   *   *   *   *   *

“Rocks and ripples,” they keep going (a poem)

“Rocks and ripples,” they keep going (a poem)

into tomorrow…

 

 

Rocks and ripples

 

I tossed that rock far out,

in the middle,

not as far as I could throw,

but out there,

and then I watched the ripples,

in a wind-shaped circle,

fading to dimples soon enough

   but not quite wiffling into nothing,

and I could see, for a moment,

how that rounding pulse

   would keep going

      after I turned away…

 

August 22, 2019

Inspired by “Read my rocks” by Ellie Shumaker, age 13

in 2019 Rattle Young Poets Anthology

 

My poem “Rocks and ripples” 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, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Saint Joan

by George Bernard Shaw

click here

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”

 

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

*   *   *   *   *   *

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