an old writer and his words

  • STOP THIEF

    NOTE: TODAY’S POST FOLLOWS BELOW: Dear poetry-lovers,           Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog. Some of you have been daily readers since it began 9 years ago, some are more sporadic or more recent followers.  Thank you one and all. As you can imagine, it takes a fair amount…

    Lou Faber

  • IGNORANT THOUGHTS

    NOTE: TODAY’S POST FOLLOWS BELOW: Dear poetry-lovers,           Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog. Some of you have been daily readers since it began 9 years ago, some are more sporadic or more recent followers.  Thank you one and all. As you can imagine, it takes a fair amount…

    Lou Faber

  • AND THEN

    My Buddhism teaches me that Ishould be in this moment,present in an infinitesimally smallbit of time, always here, never staying.This morning my back had an issuewith me, and made its displeasure known.Pain fills moments, elongates themand time ever moving appears to slow,to grind along, almost to a halt.Would that pleasure might do the samebut it…

    Lou Faber

  • BECAUSE

    The older man walks slowly downthe beach, each foot carefully placedto find a purchase the waves would take away.He shields his eyes from the sun, ignoresthe myriad shells the ocean offers up,does not bother to hear the song of the wavesthat soon will erase all evidenceof his presence here today.He walks along this beach becauseothers…

    Lou Faber

  • INCOGNITO

    Cities allow an anonymitythat few who have itclaim to want,and those who cannotfind it only wishto briefly have it.Cities have mastered juxtaposition,offering what is unwanted,taking that which is.But we choose to livein cities, visit them,for they are our sirensand we are simple sailorsalways looking for home.

    Lou Faber

  • DESHAN’S ENLIGHTENMENT

    If you carry the sutrasand the koan collectionswith you on the pathwhat will you getother than tired.If you carry nothingon the pathyou may be enlightened. A reflection on case 104 of Dogen’s True Dharma Eye koans (正法眼蔵)

    Lou Faber

  • DOWNSIDE UP

    For just one dayI want to look at everythingfrom the opposite side,the back or the bottom only.The coffee cup from whichI have sipped a thousand cappuccinoshas initials and I now wantto know who shaped it,how they did the glazeand what they saw in its pattern.So many things will tell mewhere they are from, eventhose who…

    Lou Faber

  • SHUSHAN AND THE STONE WORKERS

    If, in searchingfor enlightenment youcome across a masterand you ask him in whichof the four cardinal directionsyou should seek your goalhe will tell you to looknorth, east, southand west at once.If you say you cannothe will tell you to lookin all four direction whichyou can do from whereyou are then standing. A reflection on Case…

    Lou Faber

  • BEAUTY

    The rose no more knowsits own beautythan the chrysanthemumdoes its scent.The birds will carry the seeds,the bees will pollinate the flowersbut it is left to usto recognize the abject beautynature willingly unfoldsbefore us, it is ourEden, small momentsof perfection which weso often ignore, which weunthinkingly lay waste to,and we who must learnto mourn what we…

    Lou Faber

  • DRY FEET

    My Buddhist teachers saythat you cannot stepinto the same river twice.I am not one for steppinginto rivers at all, havingas a child done so andslipping on a smooth rockfalling and bruising my thigh.It was more of a creekand I should have seenthe slime on the rockbut a child is more interestedin what lies ahead and…

    Lou Faber