an old writer and his words

  • FOR SALE

    For a reasonable sum,I can have a star named after me,and get a certificate suitablefor framing declaring it so. I’d like to buy a group of starsin relatively close proximityeach to the others, and ratherthan naming each after me, I’d name the lot with one name,my personal constellation,perhaps Buddhist, the sky coulduse a Bodhisattva of…

    Lou Faber

  • PRISONER

    This morning, I am certainthe earth pulled me down more strongly,as though gravity needed to reassert itself,having lost someone in its gripto the virus, a common complaintas we stumble through still another year. I fought it off course, the birdsin the wetland at once admiringmy effort and laughing at what they knewwould ultimately be a…

    Lou Faber

  • BACK LOOKING

    On the worst day, of the worstweek, or even just a day, like mostthat did not go the way you want,step outside at night if the sky is clearand stare upwards at the universe. Realize that you are seeingmore than a monumental collectionof celestial bodies, that you areexperiencing so much history,and moments older thanmankind itself,…

    Lou Faber

  • COSMIC CONUNDRA

    They say that someof the rings of Saturnare braided.They also say thatRapunzel’s hairwas braided.I am a skeptic for when I stareat Saturnthrough the old binocularsI see two fuzzyastigmatic spots of lightand Rapunzel has gonepunk, and I see onlyan oversizednose ring.The sad thing isthat Jupiter’s red spotis showing signsof becominga melanoma. First published in The Post…

    Lou Faber

  • POSTDICTIONS

    In the beginning there wasa void, stasis, dimensionless.I am a point, without sizetaking form only in motion,so too the seat on whichI sit on United flight 951not going from point Ato point B for neithercan exist in motiontranscending time. Each decision setsone me on a path, intoa dimension, dimensionswhile I tread a different pathand I…

    Lou Faber

  • I’LL BE SEEING YOU

    We live in a zoom world, one we never imagined, and one for which we will never be prepared. But it is our life now, friends and family reduced to pixels, voices disembodied.  They tell us this is the new normal, although what is normal about it is beyond logic and comprehension. We believe deeply…

    Lou Faber

  • TOO MANY COOKS

    I can still recallthe day my motherwas ecstatic on learningthat everything grewout of a primordial soup.It was proof, shewas certain, of a JewishGod, even if he didn’tdo it all with his own hands.And, with a broad smileshe said, I’m fairly certainat the soupwas chicken, maybewith kreplach on the side.

    Lou Faber

  • MEMORY

    We were told the average background color of the universe was turquoise.  She said “that’s because a coyote ripped it from the mountains outside Cerrillos.  But now they say it’s actually a shade of dark beige, drying mud colored.”  It was a glitch in the software, the astronomers said.  The coyote was unmoved. She sits…

    Lou Faber

  • JOSHU’S DOG

    Joshu’s dogand Schrodinger’s cat-are they oneand the same?Leave the lidon the boxof the mind.What isthe half lifeof a thought? A reflection on Cse 114 of teh Shobogenzo (Dogne’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • TIMELESS

    The wonder of clocks in old towns and citiesis that few actually care if the timethey portend is accurate or an approximation. The importance often seems inverselyproportional to the size of the place in whichit is called upon to render a temporal verdict. Best of all are the clocks whose handshave ground to a halt,…

    Lou Faber