by Richard Subber | Apr 17, 2025 | Human Nature, Tidbits
by your own lights…
“My agent said,
‘You aren’t good enough for movies.’
I said,
‘You’re fired.’ ”
Sally Margaret Field (b1946)
Two-time Oscar-winning actress
OK, sure, Sally Field may not be at the very top of the your list of Wise Persons of Our Age.
On the other hand, she saw this deep truth: you see your best agent in the mirror.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Sketches by Boz
…the Miss Willises are a scream…
by Charles Dickens
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Apr 10, 2025 | Language, Poetry, Tidbits
poetry can be rain…
“One evening in the maize-field…to amuse myself,
I spoke to the field laborers, who were mostly quite young,
in Swaheli [sic] verse. There was no sense in the verse,
it was made for the sake of rhyme…
They were quick to understand that the meaning of poetry
is of no consequence,
and they did not question the thesis of the verse,
but waited eagerly for the rhyme, and laughed at it when it came….
As they had become used to the idea of poetry, they begged:
‘Speak again. Speak like rain.’ ”
quote from Out of Africa, pp. 285-286
Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) (1885-1962)
New York: The Modern Library, 1937, 1992
399 pages
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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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 | Apr 8, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
blinking, not blinking…
Owning the trail
The sun was high,
the patient rays
striped the forest floor,
tree tops swayed enough
to nudge the shadows,
a bird sang half a song
way down the hill,
an angry squirrel
sailed across the trail
and stared at me,
he didn’t blink.
I walked the next turn,
and stared without blinking,
an eight-point buck
looked back at me,
he stood still
as his woman and kid
rambled across the path
and disappeared
in the hydrangea,
he didn’t budge,
he seemed to be daring me
to make a move.
He showed no fear,
he owned the trail,
I was the stranger with two legs,
I looked at him for moments,
I faced him moments more
as I shuffled back
around the turn,
and shambled from his world.
The sun was high,
the shadows trembled,
I walked away through empty woods.
February 6, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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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by Richard Subber | Apr 6, 2025 | Human Nature, Theater and play reviews
through the looking glass…
Movie review:
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Frances McDormand can do comedy, in case you were wondering.
She plays the title character in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008, rated PG, 92 minutes).
Guinevere Pettigrew is a middle-aged, lonely, unlucky governess looking for work—any job will do—in London in 1939.
She gets mixed up with a flibbertigibbet American celebrity whose lifestyle is different, way different. She steps onto the fast track for a while. There’s a fair share of wide-eyed gaping on the part of Miss Pettigrew.
Miss Pettigrew obviously has her own set of moral standards, and her own expectations about what life should have to offer, and her own approach to living the good life.
Miss Pettigrew steps through the looking glass for a time, does her best to make things better for everyone, and finds a gentleman who’s willing to share her tomorrows.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Comanche Empire
here’s the other story of the American West…
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Mar 25, 2025 | Politics, Power and inequality, Reflections, Tidbits
forget the small potatoes…
“…stop seeking the impossible,
the short-sighted,
and the unnecessary.”
from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016
p. 101
Of course, I realize that each person has a personal definition of “the impossible, the short-sighted, and the unnecessary.”
The point is:
Forget about what you can’t change, and forget about the small potato stuff.
Commit to doing a good thing.
Commit to resisting the bad stuff that touches you in ways you can avoid.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: Ethan Frome
not being satisfied with less…
by Edith Wharton
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Mar 23, 2025 | Books, My poetry, Poetry, Politics, Reflections, Tidbits
Too many gulfs…
Hand me that hammer
This lightening sky pulls my eye
upward from newly darkening earth.
Our troubled plain
has no points of light just now.
We face fears, terrors, hates, imprecations,
repudiations, exclusions…
Too many gulfs appearing,
too few bridges imagined
in the grim thoughts of too many.
I will build one bridge today,
I welcome this lightening sky
to ease my work.
November 9, 2016
I work on building a bridge every day.
I try to do a good thing every day.
That’s good for me and for America.
It helps to keep me sane.
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: All The President’s Men
The men and women
who crave power…
by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
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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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