by Richard Subber | Dec 7, 2023 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
new birdsong…
Think again
I had this idea about immortality,
but I was thinking about the wrong future.
The lab guys said they could archive my brain,
do a download of my mind and memories,
back me up on a secure server,
give me a digital life that won’t quit,
write new words for “I ain’t got no body.”
I thought I could live forever.
I was thinking about the wrong future.
Future isn’t the forever thing.
I forgot that now will last forever
in this network that has no sunrise.
I forgot that future is the next bit
of new birdsong,
the next kiss from a sweet child.
I forgot that there will be no more sniffling,
no more brie and crackers,
no more warm hugs,
no more purling brooks,
no more sunsets
that just squeeze all joy
into my eyes.
November 16, 2021
I’m inspired by Mike Franklyn’s poem, “Ah! To Be Human”
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: Girl with a Pearl Earring
This is Tracy Chevalier’s bucket of love…
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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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by Richard Subber | Dec 5, 2023 | Human Nature, Language, Reflections, Theater and play reviews
losing sight of right and wrong…
Movie review:
Dangerous Liaisons
Dangerous Liaisons (1988, rated R, 119 minutes) is not a garden of delight.
If you aspire to a working understanding of good and evil, you could do worse than listen to the riveting chatter of the leading personae: the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich). They choose each word with careful, deliciously ribald, austerely cruel, and domineering intent.
This is a boundless exposé of the worst elements—of human intrigue, self indulgence, hubris, vaunting egos, and careless poaching of souls—that masquerade as amour.
Dangerous Liaisons is an ultimately degraded experience for both the characters and viewers, who must condemn the marquise and the vicomte for so many lives destroyed…death is an anticlimax in Dangerous Liaisons.
The marquise and the vicomte are burdened with a moral framework that shuns the absolute—they have unimaginably unsatisfied desires, and no intellectual imperative of right and wrong.
They swirl through their lives, casually jousting with each other as they amuse themselves in controlling the fates of other men and women, without realizing that they are not in control of their own fates.
The movie is based on a 1782 French epistolary novel titled Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, available in English translation.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Dirty Dancing (1987) (movie review)
Oh baby, baby, baby…
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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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by Richard Subber | Nov 7, 2023 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry
the yearling ahead of the herd
Taking a walk
There she goes again.
She’s running ahead, beyond my reach,
she stops and waits if I call loud enough,
but she doesn’t shout back.
Taking a walk
isn’t something she needs to do
in measured steps with me.
It’s the daring.
I think she’s not testing limits,
she’s learning what to do,
and how to do it,
before a limit comes into view,
before it makes her mindful.
It’s the dashing.
It’s not escape, it’s exuberance.
It’s a style of open plains loping,
she doesn’t see the sidewalk
that I’m following,
she’s following the instinct
of the yearling ahead of the herd.
It’s the dancing.
She runs, she skips,
she jumps, she hears a music
that has nothing to do
with my cautions
or my grown-up obligation
or my protective love.
It’s the doing.
I understand that she is
reaping new experiences in her life.
There is no danger outside my imagination.
The coyotes are out of range,
I’m sure of it and she depends on me.
She is a dasher, a dancer and a prancer,
and it is my joy
to scramble to catch up to her again.
April 22, 2017
My oldest granddaughter likes being out in front. She has never actually ranged far enough ahead to be out of my sight. I don’t know if she would go that far. I guess she wouldn’t do it deliberately. I don’t really think she might be attacked by a dog rushing out from the next home she passes…I can’t get that completely out of my mind. I can guess at the horizons she’s pushing back in her mind. She won’t understand the joy/fear in my mind until she’s a lot older. There are three more grandkids in line behind her. I’m learning to walk faster.
My poem “Taking a walk” was published in my second collection of 47 poems, Seeing far: Selected 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 2023 All rights reserved.
Movie review: Same Time, Next Year
all-American adultery, oh yeah…
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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 29, 2023 | Human Nature, Joys of reading, My poetry, Poetry
remember your first time?
Learning
There is duty in learning, yes,
but the gentle passions of curiosity
can turn the page
and move the pencil
and light the quest
to learn more.
There is labor in learning, yes,
but the rush of exaltation
excites the calculus of understanding,
spills pride across the page,
pushes the pencil to the next line,
wakens the will to persist,
tightens the fingers
that write the strange new truths,
leans into learning
a bit more,
and then more…
July 11, 2023
Inspired by Die Hausaufgabe (The Homework), an 1893 painting by Simon Glücklich (1863-1943)
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…it’s a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
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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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by Richard Subber | Oct 26, 2023 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Reflections
a “start feeling good” book
Book review:
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus (b1957)
New York: Doubleday, 2022
390 pages
Lessons in Chemistry is not a “feel good” book.
It’s a “start feeling good” book.
Of course, there’s a message, and there’s a good story, and the message doesn’t get in the way of the story, and the story doesn’t obscure the message. (Guys, everybody can be a scientist, no matter which bathroom they use).
I think I need to mention that I’m not a dog person, so I confess that Six-Thirty isn’t my favorite character, but he’s more human than some people I know, so he’s important. Just think about this: maybe dogs can talk, but they choose not to.
Lessons in Chemistry is 390 pages of telling the centuries-old truths about the failures and the bitterness of the culture of male domination.
Some readers may think it’s all too much (and the “Supper At Six” TV show is a bit much), but the story evolves into a good story, and we need more inspiration to understand that some girl baby born somewhere yesterday may have what it takes to be the best scientist ever.
Elizabeth Zott has the words.
She says:
“Let’s get started.”
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Loneliness beyond understanding…
by Herman Melville
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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by Richard Subber | Oct 12, 2023 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
for life to have meaning
“A man must fill his life with meaning,
meaning is not automatically given in life.
It is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning.”
from The Chosen
by Chaim Potok
New York: Fawcett Crest, 1967
pp. 204-205
Here’s one approach: do a good thing every day.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: Ethan Frome
not being satisfied with less…
by Edith Wharton
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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”
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