an old writer and his words

  • EVENT HORIZON

    Someone suggested thatit is certain if you fallinto a black hole you will becrushed well beyond diamond. Not exactly a fate I’d want,but that person addedthat time elongates as yougo through the event horizon. If I understood him correctly,death is instantaneous butthat instant will seem quite longas you verge on your death. I could live…

    Lou Faber

  • IMMEASUREABLE

    The distance between truthand belief is as small as the widthof a hydrogen atom, yetas wide as the diameterof a galaxy of your choice. You say truth is relative, Iknow that it can morphin the face of circumstancebut that hardly makesrelativity a factor in truth. You say you believe in truth,at least as you see…

    Lou Faber

  • MARS

    Mars has risen in the western sky. Perhaps it is waiting for the moonto draw our attention,but the moon is periodicallyirascible, as tonight, and haschosen to abandon Marsto the stellar firmament. Mars has risen in the western sky. I wander into the dark in searchof the peace that onlynight affords, but the horizonis war and…

    Lou Faber

  • VISITORS

    We keep looking, some of uscertain they are there,others as certain they are not,as God didn’t mention them. We hope to see themto reach out to themto understand them,to learn from them. Of course, we knowthat if they are herethey are so much moreintelligent than we and hardly likelyto announce theirpresence given whatthey must know…

    Lou Faber

  • BACK LOOKING

    On the worst day, of the worstweek, or even just a day, like mostthat did not go the way you want,step outside at night if the sky is clearand stare upwards at the universe. Realize that you are seeingmore than a monumental collectionof celestial bodies, that you areexperiencing so much history,and moments older thanmankind itself,…

    Lou Faber

  • COSMIC CONUNDRA

    They say that someof the rings of Saturnare braided.They also say thatRapunzel’s hairwas braided.I am a skeptic for when I stareat Saturnthrough the old binocularsI see two fuzzyastigmatic spots of lightand Rapunzel has gonepunk, and I see onlyan oversizednose ring.The sad thing isthat Jupiter’s red spotis showing signsof becominga melanoma. First published in The Post…

    Lou Faber

  • POSTDICTIONS

    In the beginning there wasa void, stasis, dimensionless.I am a point, without sizetaking form only in motion,so too the seat on whichI sit on United flight 951not going from point Ato point B for neithercan exist in motiontranscending time. Each decision setsone me on a path, intoa dimension, dimensionswhile I tread a different pathand I…

    Lou Faber

  • CASSIOPEIA

    You sit on your self-made throneand stare at the night skyas clouds gatherand dissipate beneath you.Do you even recallwhy you were cast out,condemned to your cell so vastyet infinitely confining?Does your body rememberthe touch of his handthe crude hunterwho set you aflamewith a white heatthat paled the sun of summer?What do you imagineas tongues of…

    Lou Faber

  • QUESTION POSED, AWAITING A RESPONSE

    I stooped and spoketo a stone, asking the question.I was here before you arrivedand I will be her long after you leave.I held the sand in my handwarm from the sun, asking the question.I came after your arrivedand I will leave long before you are gone.I held the winter wind on the tipof a finger,…

    Lou Faber

  • DAITSU CHISHO BUDDHA 無門關 九

    Twenty thousand generationsa hundredhundred livesthe briefest momentin being, there isno becoming, no leaving and nothing is attainedfor there is no needof attainment, Seijowhispered tono one. A reflection on Case 9 of the Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber