an old writer and his words

  • PAYMENT DUE

    He only wanted to be forgotten, heput on mask after mask seekingthe anonymity that celebrity denied.There he was satanic, freely condemnedfor thoughts he shared that gratedon their sense of self-worth, their egos,and here almost angelic, if not to betrusted, no one knowing which he was realand which a carefully crafted veneer.Still he found neither solace…

    Lou Faber

  • ONLY ONE WORLD

    Everyone wants to go back tothe “I wish it were like this world,”one that never existed, couldn’twith each of those worlds beingunique and unlike every otherand even if it were possibleonly one person would gettheir wish fulfilled leavingthe rest of us in a placethat we can never fully imagine,So knowing they cannot go there,they want…

    Lou Faber

  • CINQUAINS

    The moonslowly risingswallows the nearby starsbut promises they will returnby dawn The sundigests the moona temporary mealthat will end with the fall of nightagain

    Lou Faber

  • CHOSHA ADVANCES A STEP

    If you are askedby your teacherhow your practiceis going, will you sayit goes wellor will you sayit goes badly.If you say eitherthe teacher may frown.But the teacherwill smile whenyou say it goesand nothing more. A reflection on case 79 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)

    Lou Faber

  • THEY WANT

    They all want to tell mewhich direction I should go, thatno matter which direction I am goingit is not the right direction.They want to tell me what to say,that what I am saying is wrong,although I am wholly silent.They want to tell mewhat to think, what I shouldnot even think, although theycannot know my thoughts.They…

    Lou Faber

  • SHE

    She is both mother hen and Mother Superior. She is always loving, but she is a harsh taskmaster who wants things done on her schedule and brooks no dissent or excuses. But she reads us well, knows when we require affection, when we need her present or absent. We do not know quite how she…

    Lou Faber

  • ENDING HERE

    I am still not certainhow I ended up hereon the other side of silencewhere words go to slowly die.It was to be foreveruntil severed cruelly by deathbut neither of us diedin manifest ways, justsmall deaths that over timesevered the bonds that still held,a death-borne parting of sorts.It was never a mistakeor an omission of logic,…

    Lou Faber

  • THE SNAKE’S LAMENT

    You realize that it getstiring always being the onewho they try to blamefor all manner of sinsand flat-out mistakes. I get the garden, but allI did was show them the apple,they decided to eat it despiteHis warning, so how is that on me? And do you know how hardit was for the wife and Ito…

    Lou Faber

  • CAN YOU SEE THIS

    I live in a country that Ino longer recognize althoughI was born here and never livedin any other place.I once lived in a land of doorsthrough which the likes of usentered to find refuge, find lifebut now we build wallsand hope they allow no entry.Once we were full palettes,an endless variety of shades,of human hues…

    Lou Faber

  • JUST WAITING

    I spend a great deal of time waitingin rooms so namedin lines that never seem to movefor old Godot who still hasn’t arrivedfor the peace and prosperity the politicians love to promisefor the light to change to green when I am running latefor the rain to stop when I want to be outsidefor someone to…

    Lou Faber