an old writer and his words

  • I DON’T MIND

    Sanity is a state of mind, he said, which I visit only from time to time. It’s a dark and scary place where a majority live and that is reason enough to dwell among the insane.

    Lou Faber

  • INTENTION

      Today my intentions fell away through the hourglass the best, heaviest, first, followed in course by the lesser, until I could mark my day by the void left in their wake. But tomorrow I shall turn the glass over yet again.

    Lou Faber

  • BURDEN OF WINTER

    On this one a taste clinging gingerly, on this one clumps, here a variegated blanket. Each tree bears the burden of winter in its own way.

    Lou Faber

  • [ ]

    In the middle of my morning zazen I am no longer here. I have fallen deeply into my mat. The ending bell rings.

    Lou Faber

  • WINTER TWO VIEWS

    The small dog frolics in the snow — now appearing from, now disappearing into clouds of flakes, while his master stands in the door cursing winter. As the temperature slides below zero, even the snow imagines itself a wave cresting onto a South Florida beach.

    Lou Faber

  • VISIONS

    The small child peers through the bamboo poles of the bridge as he stares down at a turtle who stares up at him with equal fascination. His mother excitedly says, “see the turtle?” Of course he can see the turtle but he also sees an Ichthyosaurus and giant whales and frightening fish. Later, as she…

    Lou Faber

  • SUNDAY MORNING

    It is Sunday we sit in the living room each with our lattes she brushing the cat. I sat on the sofa with the Sunday Times. We are listening to radio Hele Norge, unsure why, the Norwegian caroming around our ears, the speakers noticing nothing different. We’re not quite sure how the weather is in…

    Lou Faber

  • FELINE BUDDHA NATURE

    The cat is curled on my zabuton, and stares up at me only long enough to say, “now would be a good day to test Buddha’s advice – that you can sit almost anywhere and still your mind. So look around I have left you the rest of the room and your sitting bench, and…

    Lou Faber

  • UNASKING

    There is much you would ask the Buddha and so little he would tell you. But at the moment that you fall silent, when your last question slips away and you have no request – in that moment the Buddha will speak freely and provide the answer to unthought-of questions.

    Lou Faber

  • INSTANT

    An instant, perhaps less, who is to know and how is it to measure. Time is a dimension that we stretch and shape, that always snaps back, resisting change, ever changing. It insures that this moment-place can never exist again, and the Buddhist river thanks us.

    Lou Faber