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

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

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

“la cage” was 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 so 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

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

 

Book review: Hag-Seed

by Margaret Atwood…it ain’t Shakespeare

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”

 

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

*   *   *   *   *   *

No Constitutional Right to be Ladies…book review

No Constitutional Right to be Ladies…book review

what’s right is right…

 

 

Book review:

No Constitutional Right to be Ladies:

Women and the Obligations of Citizenship

 

by Linda K. Kerber (b1940)

New York: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1998

405 pages

 

Kerber, a well-respected historian, makes what should be an obvious point: women are citizens, just like men, and they should share all the rights and obligations of citizenship.

She disputes, in compelling detail, that women have a constitutional right “to be ladies” when that is conceived as separating them from a complete status as functioning citizens who are the constitutional equals of men (even the ones they’ve married!).

It’s not a “feminist” thing or a “suffrage” thing. It’s a matter-of-fact thing—nothing about it doesn’t make sense.

*   *   *   *   *   *

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

 

Oops, Columbus didn’t “discover” America

…but he did get close…

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“…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.

 

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

Old Henry…a movie review

Old Henry…a movie review

to be or not to be…

 

 

Movie review:

Old Henry

 

The tension builds slowly in Old Henry (2021, not rated, 99 minutes) and you may be tempted to stop waiting to find out what it’s all about.

Truth is, it’s easy to stay with it.

There are no “stars” in Old Henry, and no Hollywood gush.

It’s a 1906 Oklahoma western that doesn’t need a soundtrack.

There is father-son conflict and bonding galore.

There is persistent necessity to consider the yin and yang of what’s right and what’s wrong and a lot of the in-betweens.

You’ll learn a few things you don’t already know about the real-life Henry McCarty who called himself William Bonney and is known to history as Billy the Kid.

You can take some time to think about this: are we who we were, or are we who we are, or can we be who we want to be, or should we be who our loved ones think we are…

Old Henry received the “Best Feature” award at the 2021 Almeria Western Film Festival.

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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

“The beginning is always today.”

(quote, Mary Shelley)

so get started…

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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

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