an old writer and his words

  • THE BUDDHIST TEMPLE AT NARA

    On the steps of the Temple the unexpected morning snow which cast a threadbare blanket over the gates and lanterns recedes slowly like a supplicant whose prayers have been offered. The candle flames shiver in the strong February wind while the Buddha sits, implacable. In the park below a dragon kite takes the wind and…

    Lou Faber

  • CONVERSATION WITH THE GODS

    This could be one of those days when you think you might want to finally climb Olympus and have that discussion with the gods. They’ve been up there forever and it isn’t clear they serve any Purpose other than taking up space and betting on when Sisyphus will get the rock to the top of…

    Lou Faber

  • THREE MORE VIEWS OF THE SHOBOGENZO

    BASO’S HEART SUTRA When my teacher asks of my practice I shall be still for the eye speaks volumes and the mouth sees all that lies before it. HŌON’S AWAKENING A fool always asks how do I get to where will I find what will come. A wise man can swallow an ocean in a…

    Lou Faber

  • THREE VIEWS OF THE SHOBOGENZO

    SEIGAN’S WHISK If a master asks where I am from I shall tell him. If he lifts his stick and asks if they have this stick there I will grab the stick and cast it into the ocean so it may go where it chooses. HYAKUJO REMAINS SEATED The gift of dharma flies off in…

    Lou Faber

  • MUSINGS

    The poet muses: I wonder if a cat purrs when no one is in the same room. I suppose we could put in a microphone and find out. Schrödinger comments: if there is no microphone the cat is purring and the cat is not purring, and what is the half- life of a poem.

    Lou Faber

  • STAIRCASE

    It stands at the end of a very long hallway white walls, naked like giant canvasses awaiting the overdue artist. There are no doorways off this corridor, just the one behind you through which you entered what now seems hours ago. You stand as though rooted to the polished marble floor, your legs leaden, to…

    Lou Faber

  • QUESTIONS

    If the night sky contains no moon has the sun gone out? It is like a garden within a fence, do the flowers dream of freedom or are we the prisoners kept out from the world within their golden petals? A strong wind carries off the answers.

    Lou Faber

  • MORE MUSIC OF THE FLUTE

    UMMON’S FEAST         鐵笛倒吹 七 Sitting in the deep well of silence feel the old patriarchs dancing on top of your head, look down under the weight of their wisdom., to the earth and stare deeply into their eyes. But how will you go make a feast for the never sated gods? Lie on the earth,…

    Lou Faber

  • FROM THE BEGINNING

    Buddha said Christ walked on water, but we all did that in the womb, it was only knowledge that caused our skills to erode. Be content, he smiled, you could have been an egg.

    Lou Faber

  • SUITS HIM

    She says she is certain that she has seen the archangel Gabriel. It was late at night, to be sure, but it clearly wasn’t someone of this world and equally clearly not an alien, since there was no UFO or wormhole. She knew, as well, it wasn’t God, “Why would God trifle with me, when…

    Lou Faber