an old writer and his words

  • BALANCING ACT

    Push came to shove the other day. At least that was my position, although some said it was more propelled, or at best a nominal thrust. When my face hit the dirt I was convinced it was a shove, if not a ramming or bulldozing. And I’m sure the other guy wonders if it was…

    Lou Faber

  • PIXEL THIS

    I have it on good authority,supposedly, that the internetwill not he the death of me. I have my sincere doubts, andregardless, it has turned my worldon its head more than a bit. In high school and collegeI knew that a thick envelopewas an acceptance, a thin one a letter telling me this or thatIvy League…

    Lou Faber

  • TESTAMENT

    Christ and his discipleswalk slowly through the lobbyen route to the bar, discussingthe evil of war and blind obedience.They push three tables togetherand slowly drain the pitchersof Bud draft, laughingover the sound of the Karaoke.As the evening draws itselfinto night, he boastsin Aramaic that hehas translated more than halfof the Bhagavat Gita,although he much prefersthe…

    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

  • REMEMBER THIS

    He awoke this morning, and wassurprised to be there, he said,because when you are ninety,and can’t get around at all,you don’t look forward to tomorrow,for it will simply be a repeatof today when nothing will happen.And it is harder still, he says,because he can’t remember much anymore,so it’s hard to say if todayis any different…

    Lou Faber

  • JOSHU MEASURE THE WATER

    When your mind is ragingthoughts flowing, eddyingwhen you enter the zendowhat do you do in sitting? Do you take your stickand measure the waterto insure a safe fording,or do you sit amid the streamand let the floodwash over and around youdry and silent within? A reflection on case 47 of the Iron Flute Koans

    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

  • PURSE AND WALLET

    A woman’s purse is inviolable territoryshe tells me, and no man dare look withinunless invited and that is as unlikey to happenas a man is to fully understand a woman. What she doesn’t say, but what time hasdemonstrated to me repeatedly, is thatwithin that small space is the solutionto most of life’s pressing problems, a…

    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

  • ROBO

    The phone is again ringing,and the odds say it is someonewho wants to extend my warrantyon the car I no longer own, or to lower my credit card interestthough I never carry a balance,or to help me fix my computer if Ijust hand over control to them. I won’t answer this time, almostnever do unless…

    Lou Faber