Have you “…been made various…”?

Have you “…been made various…”?

…always more to learn…

 

 

“…people whose lives

       have been made various by learning…”

 

Mary Ann Evans “George Eliot” (1819-1880)

English novelist, an icon in Victorian literature

from Silas Marner, p. 24

 

It’s so easy to think that learning is only about knowledge.

Learning changes lives and living. I don’t mind thinking that what I have learned in my life, and the learning that I continue to enjoy, has made me more various than I otherwise might have been.

You could say that variousness is the spice of life…some people might say it another way…

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: American Colonies

So many and so much

    came before the Pilgrims

by Alan Taylor

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“I know remembrance…”…“knowing,” my poem

“I know remembrance…”…“knowing,” my poem

the birds we do not know

 

 

knowing

 

I know being

   and I know anticipation

      and I know expectation,

 

and nonetheless I know surprise

   and I know remembrance

      and I know fear

         and I know wonder…

 

what is it that I do not know?

what remains to be not unknown?

 

…which slowly singing bird

   will pick my window

      for her morning melodies?

 

September 20, 2025

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

 

Book review:

Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene

sincere, but off the mark…

click here

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

“Hear, hear,” quiet sound…my poem

“Hear, hear,” quiet sound…my poem

don’t try to unhear it

 

 

Hear, hear

 

Can you hear it?

 

You’re alone,

the walls don’t talk,

the plants don’t talk,

the rabbit in the yard

   makes no sound,

the chair just sits there,

nature’s murmuring is too far away…

 

“silence” is a word

   but if you say it…

 

Can you think a tune?

 

How much noise is “quiet”?

 

Of course,

   disdain the tintinnabulation of the bells,

but listen for that small sweet note,

and hum it for a sec…

 

you can’t unhear it.

 

August 20, 2025

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

 

The Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale…book review

Literate, but impersonal

click here

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.

*   *   *   *   *   *

The Things They Carried…book review

The Things They Carried…book review

the far side of yourself…

 

 

Book review:

The Things They Carried

 

by Tim O’Brien (b1946)

New York: Broadway Books, 1990

273 pages

 

Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam war veteran.

If you served in the Vietnam war, you have a perspective for reading The Things They Carried.

If you didn’t go to Vietnam, you have a different perspective.

If you weren’t born until after the war ended, you have a different perspective.

Tim O’Brien speaks to you, read his words any way you want.

All of us are still carrying some of the things we carried in those years.

Can anyone point to feelings that haven’t changed since then?

Whether you’re a veteran or not, O’Brien invites you to get “in touch with the far side of yourself” (p. 123).

The Things They Carried is about burdens and our capacity to accept them.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: To Serve Them All My Days

by R. F. Delderfield

A beloved teacher,

      you know this story…

click here

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“I know remembrance…”…“knowing,” my poem

“…remain generous of heart…”…Amor Towles (quote)

we made our present…

 

 

“…if we persevere and remain generous of heart,

we may be granted

a moment of supreme lucidity—

a moment in which all that has happened to us

suddenly comes into focus

as a necessary course of events…”

 

from A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles (b1964)

New York: Penguin Books, 2016

462 pages

p. 441

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

84, Charing Cross Road (book review)

Helene Hanff, on reading good books…

click here

As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

dance the night away…”daily,” my poem

dance the night away…”daily,” my poem

no clock needed for dancing…

 

 

daily

 

The arrow of time flies high

   and low and ever on,

and sometimes slow,

time creeps, betimes,

a pause is not unknown…

 

My time’s my own,

I guard it

   when there is no room for dancing…

 

July 12, 2025

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

 

Book review: The Snow Goose

…sensual drama, eminently poetic…

by Paul Gallico

click here

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 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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