an old writer and his words

  • AS INSTRUCTED

    As I was leaving the surgical centerthey handed me the sheetwith my post-procedure instructions,a sign of faith perhaps, that Iwas sufficiently out of the sedationto know what I was given. I tucked them in my pocket, anxiousto get home, to get coffeeand the food I’d been deniedsince midnight the night beforejust in case something went…

    Lou Faber

  • LAUNDRY LOVE

    In the older romcom moviesthere was often a meetcutetaking place in a laundromat. I have spent far too many hoursin laundromats when travelingon extended business trips. I found one in Santa Cruzwith a coffee shop and figuredit was where romance would bloom. I spend more than a few hourswatching but while the coffeewas always pouring,…

    Lou Faber

  • EMPTY SACKS WILL NEVER STAND UPRIGHT

    There are nightswhen the songof a single cricketcan pull you away from sleep.She says that she has heardthat not all Angels have wingsand neither of themis sure how you would knowif you met a bodhisattva.He searches the mailevery day, for a letterfrom unknown birth parentsbut none of the credit cardshe ought to carryoffers to rebate…

    Lou Faber

  • ADIOS, ARRIVADERCI, SO LONG

    As he grew ever older he saidhe wanted a sudden unanticipated death,“In my sleep preferably” he addedwith an unmeant chuckle. It would be a good way to go,I imagine, but it denies thosewho will most mourn his passingthe chance to hope for a miracle. And no matter when it happens,if it is sudden it will…

    Lou Faber

  • ISAN’S NO BUDDHA NATURE

    You may askabout the true natureof Buddha nature,but who can you ask.If you should meetthe Buddhain a coffee shop,perhaps you should askif the Buddhahas dog nature A reflection on case 115 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) Koans

    Lou Faber

  • PERSPECTIVE

    It will soon enough be time again,I am an old clockface on a towerat which no one but the truly boredbother to look, tucked in a cornerof a village half empty, its lifemoved away to places cooler,less stormy. So I sit and watchwhat life remains around me,the few children wishing theycould be elsewhere, some parentswishing…

    Lou Faber

  • LOST LYRICS

    It is strange knowing that your visionis not what it was, not what youwant it to be, not necessarily yoursin the long run, one eye alreadysemi-useless for reading and distance. You adapt, get bigger monitors, a tabletto read the news, a magnifierwhen you need to hold newsprint in hand,a large screen television (okay, youwanted that…

    Lou Faber

  • VOW

    I swore, once, that the poemI was struggling with would be my last. Actually I swore that more than once,several, maybe mamy times in fact. In my defense, that poemand the others that followed wereeach the last I wroteunder their respective oaths,so there was a fulfillment,however partial, of my vow. I am not making such…

    Lou Faber

  • ON THE SHELF

    He found the cup by the curb one morning walking to the bus.He rarely notice things on his walk, thinking always about theday ahead. But this day he saw it, picked it up and put it in hismessenger bag intending to clean it later, when he got homeafter work. He had no idea why he…

    Lou Faber

  • LEAD ME NOT

    Strange as it may seem,I was tempted to considerCatholicism, not the Roman kindbut that of the breakawy churcheswho accept all, gay or straight,married or divorced, the wholelot of mankind just because. They do believe in heavenwhich is a good alternativeto the Bardo, and having choicesis a good thing even in death. I was truly tempted…

    Lou Faber