goodness, a small flame…

goodness, a small flame…

pass the light forward…

 

 

“The goodness inside you is like a small flame,

and you are its keeper….

so long as your flame flickers,

there will be some light in the world.”

 

from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016

p. 201

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

84, Charing Cross Road (book review)

Helene Hanff, on reading good books…

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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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“…Bobby always knows…”…“bearly,” my poem

“…Bobby always knows…”…“bearly,” my poem

bears thinking about…

 

 

bearly

 

I think I’m running away—

I don’t know where to go,

I still love Mommy and Daddy,

they don’t want to come.

 

Bobby wants to come.

 

Bobby grabs my hand,

he always smiles,

Bobby’s not a real bear

   but he’s a real friend,

 

he’ll stay with me

   in case I get lost

      ‘cause Bobby always knows

         which way to look

            to see the way home.

 

April 22, 2025

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

 

Book review: Lord of the Flies

Never more relevant…

by William Golding

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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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Dinner Rush…movie review

Dinner Rush…movie review

good guys sort of win…

 

 

Movie review:

Dinner Rush

 

An honest-to-gosh suspense movie doesn’t come along all that often.

It’s a good bet that you’re not going to be able to guess how Dinner Rush (2000, rated R, 99 minutes) ends before you get to the end. It’s worth the wait. The good guys sort of win, kind of. At least you’ll be rooting for the right team.

Danny Aiello as Louis Cropa, a restaurateur-small time bookmaker-small time mob guy, carries the story line in a confined setting: almost the entire movie takes place in Cropa’s restaurant, Gigi’s, a Tribeca eatery with an acclaimed chef that has a long line of waiting patrons.

The nominal themes are good food, gambling, mobster violence, and an extended debate about portrait art.

The real themes are human frailty, family loyalties, and valiant personal character.

A bonus: the supporting cast is really quite entertaining.

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

 

Book review: Tales from Shakespeare

summaries by Charles and Mary Lamb…

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

Atonement…book review

Atonement…book review

a lifelong quest…

 

 

Book review:

Atonement

 

by Ian McEwan (b1948)

New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2001

351 pages

 

Atonement is a story of the profound sadness of a child. The sadness is a burden on several lives. McEwan invites the reader to learn to understand the life of a child who learns to understand that atonement can be a lifelong quest.

The child Briony knows she is a writer. She spends most of her life trying to understand how writing can be more than a fancy, and learning how to make it a substitute for real lives.

Briony, mature and nearing her own death, writes the final draft of her regrets for the childish impulse that unmade the lives of her beloved Cecilia and her beloved Robbie.

Briony learns that atonement can fill every space in a life, and she learns that atonement can be impotent.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Shakespeare’s Wife

Germaine Greer went overboard a bit…

click here

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

looking for butterflies…Jacqueline Woodson quote

looking for butterflies…Jacqueline Woodson quote

many ways to cherish butterflies…

 

 

“…but on paper, things can live forever.

On paper, a butterfly never dies.”

 

Jacqueline Woodson (b1963)

Writes books for youth

 

…kids draw pictures

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Shawshank Redemption

A world I do not want to know…

by Stephen King

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

Red Brethren (book review)

Red Brethren (book review)

The Indians had a point of view…

 

 

Book review:

Red Brethren:

The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians

and the Problem of Race in Early America

 

by David J. Silverman

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010

279 pages

 

Red Brethren is a scholarly deep dive into the experiences and mindsets of the First Americans who first tried to tolerate and later resisted the imperious impositions of the European colonists in North America.

The Indians left almost no record in their own writing, but Silverman exercises the customary technique of extrapolating Indian thoughts and attitudes from the written European record.

In the context of the widespread (not universal, still controversial) understanding that “race” is a social construct and a destructive concept, it is a bit puzzling that Silverman uses various manifestations of “race” in his analysis.

Nevertheless, he makes it plain that we have so much to learn about what the indigenous peoples thought of the European invaders, and how the thinking of our Red Brethren changed over time.

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

 

Movie review: Same Time, Next Year

all-American adultery, oh yeah…

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

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