an old writer and his words

  • UTEKI ASKS BUDDHA 鐵笛倒吹 四十語

    While out for a walkon a sun filled Spring dayif you happen across the Buddhahow will you recognize him? If you offer gasshoto Buddha surelyit will be returned, butis it he or merelyyour reflection offthe surface of a still pond?Does this matter to you? A reflection on case 45 of the Iron Flute Koans

    Lou Faber

  • NATURE REMINDS

    Last night, all the romanticcomedies worth watchingon Amazon and Netflix havingalready been seen, many twice we had no choice but to optfor a coming of age tale on Netflixaccompanied by the mellifluoustones of Sir David Attenborough. In my dreams last night there wasa debate between the Gentooand Emperor Penguins as to whichwas the more enrapturing,…

    Lou Faber

  • POOR JACK

    He does not want to hear it,but someone needs to tell Jackjust how foolish this makes him look. It shouldn’t require a degreein hydrogeology or philosophical logicto realize that water, like all matter obeys the basic laws of physics,the concept of gravity being a principalthat says you don’t climb to find water. Some, quite unfairly…

    Lou Faber

  • DEARLY DEPARTED

    I saw a deceased palmetto bugthis morning in the rest roomof our favorite coffee shop . It is the first we’ve seenin four winters here in Florida,and we didn’t mourn its passing. Forty-six years ago, duringa previous Florida life, my catwould find numerous palmettos, which she found made great toysto dribble across the terazzo floorsof…

    Lou Faber

  • Fuketsu’s Speech and Silence 無門關 二十四

    Inward but not outwarda broken stick Outward but no inwarda broken stick A partridge singsin silenceflowers bloomat midnight Fuketsu smiles knowingly. A reflection on case 24 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate)

    Lou Faber

  • BLUE ON BLUE

    The sun is shining brightly today,and the sky, with only the oddpassing cloud, is that certain blue. Do not ask me to describe that certainblue, but be assured it is not exactlythe blue that you are imagining right now. Even if I would describe it, in someinfinite detail, your vision of itwould at best be…

    Lou Faber

  • OUT OF THE NURSERY

    The one question that has never hada proper answer still bothers me.Actually it gives rise to multiple questionswhich synergistically expand my displeasure. I get she had a lamb, and I don’t questionwhy, nor why hers was little, full size lambsare far more common, and seriouslywhat did she do, bleach it every few days? But those…

    Lou Faber

  • UNANSWERED

    As strange as it seems, I canspend hours in a used bookstorelost in the marginalia, and textbooks, particularly those in psych and sociologyare generally the most fertile,for those students, though they would never admit it, pursued those fieldshoping to find answers to their ownproblems without having to ask. Yesterday’s visit was particularly fertile,but it was…

    Lou Faber

  • BLOSSOM

    I remember the cherry treesalong the reflecting pool, thoughexcept in April they mostly reflecteda partially clouded sky promising rain. Their pinkness was a tone I havesearched for since, and cameclosest in Tokyo, jealous of the emperorand his gardens so carefully tended. It is that time again, and this yearas in so many past, I will…

    Lou Faber

  • SWAN DIVE

    Its plump, dusty-white feathered bodysits atop the pond like an invertediceberg, as the lindens fringing the fieldshed their seeds onto the hardened soil.The swan lumbers across the surfacewith no particular urgency or directionslowed by the entropy of a late August afternoon,the laughed shouts of childrenplunging headlong to dinner,diverted to bathroomsfor the cursory sprinklingof unholy water,the…

    Lou Faber