an old writer and his words

  • TRANSFORMATION

    There was a time, once, when the most everything was metaphorical. That was before the great metamorphosis when everything was suddenly malleable. No one was quite certain just what happened. Most thought it was in the dead of night when they, and most everyone else was firmly in the grip of Morpheus, who was, all…

    Lou Faber

  • ERGO SUM

    She says she was certain she exists much as she is certain he exists as well. He says she thinks she exists, and thinks he does as well. Descartes, he says was right, at least on that point. She says no, it is obvious, thoughts requires existence, sum ergo cogito, she says, is how it…

    Lou Faber

  • ZAZEN

    Soon I will sit and stare into the wall, into my heart,, into the universe, and will find everything and nothing. But the center of nothing, is everything.

    Lou Faber

  • TOKYO SCENES (PART 1)

    Scene I Garish neon blazes its siren call, Lucky 7777, Vegas Land, Anima Parlor, countless others, and inside the Pachinko machines scream out their riotous cacophony, drowning thought as the balls dance in their maze indifferent to the intent stares of the player, and the smoke which covers the room with its acrid pall. Scene…

    Lou Faber

  • SOTO ZEN

    The gong reverberates, its depth hangs in the air, fades like a slowly retreating army. The zafu is at once coarse and caressing, nestling me as I settle down into becoming one with the earth, the zabuton, a fluid translator.  The mokugyo’s rhythm lies deep within my chest. The incense settles on my tongue, an acrid sweetness,…

    Lou Faber

  • CLIFFSIDE AGAIN: HEKIGANROKU CASE 5

    HSUEH FENG’S GRAIN OF RICE It is not the seeing but the looking that will drive you to the edge. It is easy to see, you hardly need eyes for that task, but to look is beyond seeing. Do you think this a mere grain of rice? Look closely, do you see the entire world?…

    Lou Faber

  • DARLING’S MANTRAS

    You are two and you laugh for everything is funny or can be, if you just tilt your head a certain way or wag a finger at it. The cat watches from behind the sofa with a knowing gaze. For you food is as much a toy as words are food and you cannot imagine…

    Lou Faber

  • TELLER

    She claims to see the future in a glass orb, in the palm of a hand, in the cards spread out on a small table. He knows all history is written in books is retold in stories is buried in successive layers of soil beneath the city. Neither walks along the shore see this wave…

    Lou Faber

  • ANOTHER VISIT TO SHOBOGENZO

    YANGSHAN’S NO ENLIGHTENMENT Within nothing there are all things, within all things there is nothing. The Buddha asks in your binary electronic world how can I count on you to survive if zero is taken from you.   NANYUE POLISHES A BRICK There is no reason to sit zazen, it is worthless yet it cannot be…

    Lou Faber

  • TIME(LESS)

    He is fond of saying that time is on our side, although we both know that time does not take sides, is incapable of action, is passive in passage. It is something of which we may never have enough, but we are certain no one has more than we in this moment. He cannot imagine…

    Lou Faber