an old writer and his words

  • IMAGINE THAT

    You said you can only acceptwhat is real and tangible,everything elseis a delusion or figment. I cannot accept your premiseas a generalization, it eliminatesso much, for what you call realmay be otherwise to me. And given that you are notalways present, perhapswhen you are not, when youare not actually tangibleyou are a delusion, and thatis…

    Lou Faber

  • NANSEN CUTS THE CAT 無門關 十四

    Thirty blows of the stickif right, thirty blowsif wrong, or Namsen’s swordand a severed cat a half to eacha whole to none Be thankful youdidn’t argue about a manfor with a shoeon the head, your feetmay touch the sky. A reflection on Case 14 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber

  • MARCH ON

    We marched regularly, often carring placards,this week against an insane warin a place we had no busines being,next week for the racial justicepromised for a century but never delivered,and then for the ecology, trying to savethe world that our parents promisedfor us as little children and failedto provide, choking through the smogand the teargas, scraping…

    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

  • PROGRESS?

    It is progressing, but thatshould not come as a surprise to you,for they told you it would happenand you accepted that as a fact. It is the speed at which it has progressed,much faster than you imagined,what was once clear, now vagueever more amorphous, half alreadyeffectively gone, and the other half? I imagine what would…

    Lou Faber

  • THE HALF TRUTH

    As a Jewish kid in a small cityI suppose I had it pretty good, enoughof us that I didn’t totally stand out,and it helped living a single blockfrom the Jewish funeral home, somejust didn’t want to travel all that farwhen the inevitable time came. But we soon moved to the suburbs,the shtetl neighborhood was gone,and…

    Lou Faber

  • CALLING THE MASTER 無門關 十二

    Each morning ask yourselfif it is you who is thereand answer: “Of course.” Remind yourself“Do not be madea fool of today”and assure yourselfyou will not Each morningfour selves,each deluded, eachthe fool, of one selfwhich is no selffree of all delusion. A reflection on Case 12 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber

  • GREATLY EXAGERATED

    Many now say the age of great literaturehas died, the mortal woiund inflictedby the advent of the self-correctingIBM Selecric typewriter, when wordsbcame evanescent, as suddenly goneas when they spilled onto the page. Others, I count myself among them,believe the wound was not fatal,deep certainly, but yet there remainsa faint pulse, ressuscitation possiblewith the application of…

    Lou Faber

  • TODAI-JI

    The snow capped mountainstares at the December skyshredding laughing clouds.I sit by the fire dreamingof the slow approach of spring. There is a momentwhen all is only silencethe zendo in stillness.In that moment I can hearthe entirety of Dharma The temple bell tolls,the deer assume their posture,afternoon zazen,I walk around Todai-jiin futile search of Buddha.

    Lou Faber

  • STONE

    Just outside townin the old dump isa slab of concreteits twisted edges piercedby rusting rebaronce the floorof the gazebo in the commons.Etched into its surfaceJim + MarieJanet Loves Eddie.Their loves were undyingcast into stone to wearslowly through the agesnot to fall victimto the jackhammer.Jim lies underthe simple stone“Sgt. U. S. ArmyServed Vietnam,”Marie left for collegebut…

    Lou Faber