by Richard Subber | Mar 12, 2026 | Language, Reviews of other poets, Tidbits
not the best, but…
“…the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
from “The Snow-Storm” (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
in Vol. 1 of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century
Generally Emerson’s poetry isn’t the best of the best,
in my mind,
but he does put some of the best words
in the best order sometimes.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
“The beginning is always today.”
(quote, Mary Shelley)
so get started…
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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 7, 2026 | Theater and play reviews
they go it alone…
Movie review:
Thelma and Louise
Louise (Susan Sarandon) and Thelma (Geena Davis) can’t escape from almost every conceivable way of living on the edge. They keep ending up in situations they have never in their lives imagined. They keep grabbing for the ring.
Ultimately, Thelma and Louise (1991, rated R, 130 minutes) is about lonely ladies who want some kind of zest in their lives, and find it on their road to glory.
You keep rooting for Thelma and Louise because so many strange people do them wrong, and a man they trust isn’t much help, and another man who wants to help can’t make it happen.
You come to understand that Thelma and Louise only have each other to root for, and they end up going it alone in the only high style they can think of.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
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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 | Mar 3, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
good and bad, a great story
Book review:
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Scottish novelist
141 pages
Originally published in 1886 as Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this iconic novella was an immediate hit and sold 250,000 copies in the United States.
(Later publishers added “The” and punctuation to the title in a gratuitous fit of grammatical purity).
It’s a masterly drama and a quaint exploration of the Manichean theme of good and evil in man. In my most recent re-reading, Jekyll seems to be a much less respectable character than in my previous experience with this classic: he is weak, licentious and mostly unrepentant.
His alter ego, Hyde, is still a bad boy.
The narrator’s reflections on human nature are thoughtful and instructive.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Old Friends (book review)
Tracy Kidder tells truth about old age…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 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 | Feb 26, 2026 | Democracy, Human Nature, Other, Power and inequality, Tidbits
tyranny, face up to it
The wisdom of James Madison:
“If men were angels,
no government would be necessary….
Is there no virtue among us?—
If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.
No theoretical checks—
no form of government, can render us secure.”
James Madison was a potent voice in the political wrangling and public debate that preceded the ratification of the U. S. Constitution in June 1788.
He was an articulate supporter of the Constitution and a leader among the Federalists who favored creation of a national government with a broad range of federal powers that constrained the powers of the states.
Madison shared the fear of his educated elite contemporaries that the “tyranny of the majority” was a notably possible flaw in a system of government based on elected representatives of the people.
If Madison were alive today he might say something like:
“Forsooth, we never imagined it might turn out this bad. We must rally the true friends of the Republic.”
Source:
To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders
Bernard Bailyn, New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., c2003, repr. 2004, 34.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Tales from Shakespeare
summaries by Charles and Mary Lamb…
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many waters: more poems with 53 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 | Feb 21, 2026 | Books, Books Commentary, Joys of reading, Tidbits
no such thing as too many books
“O quam dulcis vita fuit dum sedebamus in quieti . .
inter librorum copias.”
Alcuin of York (c735-804)
Advisor to Charlemagne
“Oh, how sweet life was when we sat quietly . . .midst all these books.”
All of the books in Alcuin’s library were written by hand, of course.
Read his reflection on books a couple of times, you may see a different image each time…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review:
John Eliot: “Apostle to the Indians”
…a righteous man of his times
by Ola Elizabeth Winslow
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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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by Richard Subber | Feb 19, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading, Language
Faulks has so many words that mean “ache”…
Book review:
The Girl at the Lion d’Or
by Sebastian Faulks (b1953)
New York: Vintage International/Vintage Books/A Division of Random House, Inc., 1989.
246 pages
Sebastian Faulks writes about the vagaries of life, the daily choices in our lives, the uncountable futures, and the singularity of the past. We think we remember various pasts, and we may struggle to reconcile them.
In The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Faulks invites us to live in the minds of Hartmann and Anne. Sometimes the reader realizes that confusion is in their minds, usually their failures are clear enough, and their successes of the moments must be cherished for their bounty.
Richly Gallic, redolent of the interwar period in Europe, The Girl at the Lion d’Or is a cumulative revelation of Anne (the girl) and a steadily burdensome understanding of the sad hindrances in her life. She comes to love Hartmann, who is ultimately contemptibly weak and viciously temporizing.
I wanted to read faster near the end so I could learn the outcome, but I resisted the impulse.
Faulks makes it worthwhile to read every word. His prose is tenaciously literate and evocative; he has no mere words—he writes passages that invite the reader to understand deeply and to feel deeply.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
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many waters: more poems with 53 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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