an old writer and his words

  • “Geography”

    People of the mountainare quiet, some say taciturnpreferring to listen for the cryof the eagle, wind whistlingits familiar tune through a passsnow rent from the facetearing down in a crystalline cloud. People of the shoremerge with the songof the waves, feel its tempopunctuated by the barkof the whale, the hornanchored in the harbor,the tavern disgorgingits…

    Lou Faber

  • Atop the Pole 無門關 四十六

    Sitting atop a hundred foot poleyou are convinced there areonly two directions: pole and down.Old Osho asks, how will you proceedand you stare back at this lunatic.How will you proceed, he repeats? You release the polestep slowly away, lookingat ten directions before you,you move your feet, each onetouches the path of eachof the three worlds…

    Lou Faber

  • SUBSTITUTE

    Language is becoming a poor substitutealthough I have no word for what it isthat it is a poor substitute for at present. I grabbed an organic bananafrom the refrigerator this morningand paused to wonder if there areinorganic bananas somewhere. My New York Times, as usual, offeredAll The News That Is Fit To Printbut I really…

    Lou Faber

  • SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

    1. And itshould come asno great surpriseIsaac Newton said,“I find I nowprefer to sit beneathpear trees.” 2. In his smallLeningrad apartmentIvan Petrovich Pavlovcursed ,”damn dogs,you bite meevery timesomeone ringsthe doorbell.” 3. Schrodinger shoutedat the PETA protesters“I’ve told youagain and againthe catis also alive,just don’t look.” First published in Defenestration, Volumee XVIII, Issue III, December 2021

    Lou Faber

  • WAITING IMPATIENTLY

    Waiting rooms are usually somber.That is true of most hospitalsand every mortuary. It isn’t like we needto be prepared for whatmight happen next. In the hospital the surgeon,at the direction of lawyers,has given us the worst case. In the mortuary we are certainthe departed was no saintso resurrection is out of the picture. I’m not…

    Lou Faber

  • SOCKING MEMORY

    It appears unexpectedlylike a sock from behind the dryerlong after its matehas been discarded or converted to rag.You have looked for itever since it went missingand knowing the way of socksand their hiding placesthe dryer was one of the firstplaces you looked for it.Memories are much like socksnow and again running offand hiding, leaving half…

    Lou Faber

  • JOSHU’S CYPRUS TREE

    A young childdoes not ask for meaning,all things areas they areuntil they are not.The foolishness of agecauses men to starein search of meaningthey will never find.It is the blind manwho will find the diamond. A reflection on case 119 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) Koans

    Lou Faber

  • AS INSTRUCTED

    As I was leaving the surgical centerthey handed me the sheetwith my post-procedure instructions,a sign of faith perhaps, that Iwas sufficiently out of the sedationto know what I was given. I tucked them in my pocket, anxiousto get home, to get coffeeand the food I’d been deniedsince midnight the night beforejust in case something went…

    Lou Faber

  • BECAUSE, JUST BECAUSE

    The cat is stalking around the house, wary. She gets this way after coming back from the vet. She actually likes the vet, and not only for the treats she gets, and the pawdicure. But she must stalk and be wary so we will be remorseful for having taken her to the vet. And she…

    Lou Faber

  • ADIOS, ARRIVADERCI, SO LONG

    As he grew ever older he saidhe wanted a sudden unanticipated death,“In my sleep preferably” he addedwith an unmeant chuckle. It would be a good way to go,I imagine, but it denies thosewho will most mourn his passingthe chance to hope for a miracle. And no matter when it happens,if it is sudden it will…

    Lou Faber