by Richard Subber | Nov 20, 2025 | Human Nature, Joys of reading, Language, Reflections
take time to share…
“In the life of each of us, I said to myself,
there is a place remote and islanded,
and given to endless regret or secret happiness…”
from
Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories
by Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)
The Library of America
New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1994
937 pages
p. 444
…sharing is what comes to my mind
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 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 | Nov 18, 2025 | Human Nature, Language, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
“…sounds that do not invite love…”
I know that much of ordinary human conversation
is essentially gossip about people we know,
experiences we’ve shared, and everyday occurrences.
Technically, even if you think you don’t gossip,
most likely you do quite a bit, every day.
Babel
The buzz of the crowd.
Social noise is so tolerable,
so remarkably incidental,
essentially careless communication,
public talk for private ears,
an imperative stream of disposable words.
Profoundly human noise.
No other creature babbles while feeding and drinking,
no other creature squanders such precious energy
to make noises that do not bring food,
to utter sounds that do not invite love
and do not demand respect.
No other creature is so fond of gabble,
so willing to abandon privacy
and say so many words
that almost no one wants to hear.
December 5, 2015
Pervasive gossip, de facto, is neither good nor bad. Most human beings incessantly communicate with each other.
My point is that gossiping in public can be noisy, intrusive, distracting, wondrously irrelevant, and, occasionally, disgusting. Usually, I really don’t want to hear your half of the cell phone conversation.
Now, talking—that’s a different story.
Talk it over with your friends.
My poem “Babel” was published in my second collection of 47 poems, Seeing far: Selected poems.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Movie review: Same Time, Next Year
all-American adultery, oh yeah…
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.
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by Richard Subber | Nov 15, 2025 | Theater and play reviews
it’s for grownups, too…
Movie review:
The Wizard of Oz
Maybe you haven’t watched The Wizard of Oz in a while. It’s not just for kids.
There are grown-up songs, introduced by “Over the Rainbow,” and probably you know most of the words to that song. Plus, you know what “follow the yellow brick road” means.
The Wizard of Oz (1939 version, rated G, 102 minutes) is basically a feel-good film, with a great big dose of technical wizardry and a widescreen feel that was created before anyone even dreamed about widescreen.
Judy Garland (1922-1969) was 16 years old when she starred as Dorothy trying to get back to Kansas with her adored Toto. She teams up with the iconic characters that you can name: Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the cowardly Lion. There’s a lot of prancing down the road.
Try watching Wizard one more time, with kids if they’re available. You won’t be surprised when you realize that a movie doesn’t need guns, high speed car chases, or any you-know-what scenes to be more or less completely entertaining.
Maybe, like me, you can remember that The Wizard of Oz was the first movie you watched the first time you had access to a color television set.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Poems of Robert Frost
he hears bluebirds talking…
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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 | Nov 6, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
your own slow smile grows…
Book review:
The Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995)
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Must Have Books, 1952,2021
166 pages
“…(Carol’s) slow smile growing, before her arm lifted suddenly,
her hand waved a quick, eager greeting that Therese had never seen before.
Therese walked toward her.”
As you read the last words of The Price of Salt, your own slow smile grows. It’s a love story that ends happily.
The story of the love story is challenging—it embraces peaks of happiness and vales of sadness and anger. Like every love story, I guess.
Carol and Therese are different personalities, they imagine different lives—but they never stop seeing their future lives together after their completely serendipitous first meeting. They never stop struggling to get to the future. Therese says: “Everything’s not as simple as a lot of combinations.”
Highsmith tells a compelling story, but she makes the reader work for it. The prose is congested, there are quirky side trips in the action, the men in their lives are more caricature than personality, and both Carol and Therese repeatedly invite the reader’s patience as they try to think about what they’re thinking about.
It doesn’t stop the smiles from growing.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Comanche Empire
the other story of the American West…
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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 | Nov 4, 2025 | Human Nature, Poetry, Reflections, Reviews of other poets, Tidbits
Write yourself a note…
. . . what of your rushed and useful life?
Imagine setting it all down—
papers, plans, appointments, everything—
leaving only a note:
“Gone to the fields to be lovely. . .”
by Lynn Ungar
Indeed.
Color me gone.
Give yourself permission to be lovely.
From “Camas Lilies” by Lynn Ungar in Blessing the Bread: Meditations. © Skinner House, 1995.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
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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 | Oct 30, 2025 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading
the fish isn’t the thing…
Book review:
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952
127 pages
The old man has a name. Santiago. He is a perilously old fisherman. He has befriended a boy, a helper—but he fishes alone.
The Old Man and the Sea isn’t about the sea. You know what it’s about. It’s about the old man, a big fish, and the vicissitudes of life concentrated in one long, lonely, painful, heroic, unsatisfying, and redemptive fishing trip.
Santiago lives a life after he hooks a marlin that is too big for him to catch. He suffers, he marvels, he learns about himself, he lives a dire philosophy, he yearns for help as he endures the hours, he accepts again and again that he is responsible for his life that may end quickly.
Santiago unknowingly shares his boat with fate and chance. He gives up his illusion of control when the sharks begin to destroy his prize.
He returns to his solitary life ashore, and the battered carcass of the fish tells no tales.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Blithedale Romance
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, not his best…
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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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