by Richard Subber | Sep 24, 2026 | Reflections, Tidbits
you can imagine dancing…
“As we age, we are bound to find comfort
from the notion that it takes generations
for a way of life to fade.
We are familiar
with the songs our grandparents favored, after all,
even though we never danced to them ourselves.”
from A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles (b. 1964)
New York: Penguin Books, 2016
462 pages
p. 144
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Snow Goose
…sensual drama, eminently poetic…
by Paul Gallico
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In high meadows: poems abide with 60 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 | Sep 20, 2026 | History, Theater and play reviews, World history
from the heart, a patriot
Movie review:
Darkest Hour
Gary Oldman was 59 years old when he won an Oscar (Best Actor) for giving us a completely believable Winston Churchill who decided in June 1940 to fight Hitler instead of settling for a completely risky peace agreement.
Darkest Hour (2019, rated PG-13, 125 minutes) is a gem. Oldman is Churchill: overweight, jowly, devotee of long cigars and whiskey, imperious, meekly in love with Clementine (he called her “Clemmie,” she called him “Pig”), a flamboyant patriot, and wartime leader.
Churchill was a career politician, of course, and Oldman deftly portrays his Machiavellian strengths and weaknesses.
Churchill was an aristocratic patriot in the core of his being.
Less than a month after he became prime minister, Churchill energized Parliament:
“We shall defend our island…we shall fight on the beaches…on the landing grounds…in the fields…in the streets…in the hills…we shall never surrender.”
Darkest Hour is Churchill’s (Oldman’s) bright triumph.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
–
In high meadows: poems abide with 60 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 | Sep 15, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
it’s good storytelling
Book review:
Brian’s Hunt
by Gary Paulsen (1939-2021)
New York: Ember, Random House Children’s Books, 2003
103 pages
Gary Paulsen writes for young people, but any adult reader can readily see that the stories are realistic, and fully readable. It’s good storytelling.
Brian’s Hunt is about a teenage boy who is at home in the woods, can survive on his own, and ultimately hunts a bear that is hunting him. Brian is a completely credible character. When he walks at the water’s edge, the reader can feel the mud between his toes.
The story line is simple and singular. The challenges of life in the wild are all too easy to experience vicariously. There is learning.
There is the satisfaction of the preferred outcome.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (book review)
consistent tension, a page turner…
by Erik Larson
–
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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by Richard Subber | Aug 27, 2026 | American history, History, Human Nature, Politics, Power and inequality
Do a good thing today…
“…the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913-2005)
You remember…Rosa Parks wouldn’t give her seat
to a white man on the bus in Montgomery in 1955…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Scarlet Letter, victim of Hollywood
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s version is best
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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 | Aug 23, 2026 | Theater and play reviews
sure, but…
Movie review:
Doubt
If certainty is your thing, this just isn’t the movie for you.
If you’re willing to share the numbing bleakness of a wish for certainty that gets chased by doubts, the little ones and the big ones, then Doubt is the ticket.
Meryl Streep is the hard-charging Sister Aloysius who’s all too ready to nail the apparent child-abusing priest in her school. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Father Flynn, who acts and talks guilty and innocent in scene after scene. Amy Adams is Sister James, who wants to believe him even though she personally experiences some of the putative evidence against him.
Doubt (2008, rated PG-13, 104 minutes) offers dramatic potency, high-class personality clashes, and deep, deep ambiguity in the final scenes that will not satisfy you, but will tie your emotions in a knot.
There’s no doubt about that.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Scarlet Letter
the beating hearts…by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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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”
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by Richard Subber | Aug 9, 2026 | Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets, Tidbits
…words can be pictures…
“The world is never the same
once a good poem has been added to it.”
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Welsh poet and writer
Dylan could have said “A poet is never the same after writing a good poem,” or “A person is never the same after reading or hearing a good poem.”
I’m in love with words, and I love to use the best words to create poems that have clarity and character.
Sometimes I think of my work as “literal poetry.” I don’t put my pen down until I’ve said exactly what I feel, exactly what I mean to say, so that you, as the reader or listener, will have no doubt about it. I want to write poems that don’t need to be explained—what you see is what it is. I want to write poems that express deep human emotions, and thoughtful observations, and precise meanings.
I am a poet, a writer, a teacher, a moralist, a historian, and an unflinching student of human nature. I think a lot. I strive to express truth and give context—both rational and emotional—to reality.
I think words can be pictures, and lovely songs, and bodacious scents, and private flavors, and early morning caresses that wake each part of me, one at a time. I know some of those words, and, from time to time, I write some of them.
I read a lot of poetry, including the classic poets like Homer and poets in America and poets around the world who have written since ancient times to modern times. Occasionally I find a poem, or a phrase, or an image that is intensely intuitive, or wonderfully imaginative, or just plain beautiful. I offer those words from other poets for your enjoyment.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle
…what meets the eye…
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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”
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