an old writer and his words

  • HUMPTY DUMPTY SAYS

    He had long since decided that language was impossible, the English language in particular. He had acquired all manner of dictionaries, and had searched the web, using it as a reverse dictionary. But all too often the language came up short. Words at best approximated what he meant, what he saw, but to get even…

    Lou Faber

  • CONVERSATION

    If you want a good conversationbirds should be your first choice,wading birds at the top of the list,although you still have to be quickfor if you meander they will lose interest. Animals are to who you should turnif you need advice on getting throughthe omnipresent obstacles life raisesto impede your smooth passage through it,but note…

    Lou Faber

  • DICTIONARY

    I set out this morningwith my large dictionaryto find the perfect wordto describe the sky, the sunjust peering over the roofof a distant house, the fewclouds aflame in a silent fire. I knew there was a wordfor what I saw in the dictionary,for there is a wordfor everything if you searchlong and hard enough, butafter…

    Lou Faber

  • MOSES SAYS TO AARON

    We sat in the tentand you complained againof our condition, knowingwhat lies just out of reach.He speaks to me, not youand there is little you can doto hide your jealousy.I often wonder what mighthave happened if I had wipedthe blood of the lamb from your lintel.It was you who watchedthe calf take shape anddid nothing,…

    Lou Faber

  • ORATION

    Our cat has become a conversationalist. Her vocabulary grows larger each day. She seemingly shares her every thought with us, and admittedly we talk to and through her with some regularity as well. She does grow frustrated when we don’t immediately understand what she is saying, what she wants in a given moment. That is…

    Lou Faber

  • LURKER

    It is there waiting, no doubtanother trap, simple initially seeming purebut harboring a malevolence that willsoon consume you, leave you broken,so considering the pen as a weapon,to lay waste to it, or for seppuku,both thoughts will no doubt come to mind. It has always been like this, always will,different if you chose the digital path,but…

    Lou Faber

  • A NAME

    Someone said that you must name somethingbefore you can really know it, and wehave gone about naming everything, evenas we know less and less about those things. We have grown so adept at naming things,that we have created multiple namesfor the things that we find the most problematic,for then they can be more easily ignored.…

    Lou Faber

  • LINES

    We love drawing lines and borders. There are few things we do better than that. But increasingly we have lost our once finely honed skill at placing them where they ought to be. I won’t even get into walls on borders to keep out families, those like our families were once. I mean small lines…

    Lou Faber

  • THE POET?

    He stood in front of the classin a more than half empty lecture halland leaned into the podium, almost smiling. He was here, a real poet, half famousby his own reckoning, totally so by ourssince he was rumpled, as a poet ought,his sport coat tweedy and ill fitting. Still we harbored some doubts,for there was…

    Lou Faber