an old writer and his words

  • BANISHED

    Yet again this morningthere was a shadowclosely following me. When I turned, it stoodin front of me, daring meto do something I guess. When I asked it whoit was, it said I am youyou dottering old man. I told it that such a liedefied belief, for it wasfar taller than me. It was about to…

    Lou Faber

  • AFOOT, A CITY

    As you walk the streetsof a city like New York,you hear a polyglot of languages,and closing your eyes youmight have no idea where you were. Listen carefully, eavesdropon conversations, imagine the storiesthey are telling, the joysand heartbreak laid bare before you,half heard, half filled into make the story palatable to you. Life in the city…

    Lou Faber

  • HOFUKO’S POINT OF ATTAINMENT

    You may ask many thingsof any teacher you meetbut the wisest of themwill only offer youunending questions.When you look to themto point you to the Waythey are doomed to failurefor your feet obscurethe Way, and it is onlyby looking withinand down through your legsand feet and toesthat you can see the way A reflection on…

    Lou Faber

  • SCHMUTZ

    Looking out the windowI quickly realize that the windowneeds cleaning, and thenthat the red-shouldered hawkin the nearby tree is carefullystaring back at me. I want to know whatthe hawk is thinking, perhapsthat I am possible prey, ormore likely wondering whyI am so foolish as to livein a strangely large box. The hawk, of course, iswondering…

    Lou Faber

  • MAGIC MIRROR ON THE WALL

    The face in the mirror this morningwas not mine, perhaps it wasthat of my grandparents, allI never met, having onlyold and faded pictures that vaguelyresemble the mirror’s face. It might be my parents, bothdead before I found them onlyyearbook pictures and just possiblea vague similarity to the facethat i see in the mirror each day.…

    Lou Faber

  • GET A ROOM

    You feel like a voyeur, staringas the red-shouldered hawksmate in a tree mere yardsfrom where you are standing. Still, you cannot take your eyesaway from them, your cameratightly focussed, an avianpornographer perhaps, or maybe just a lucky soul given the chanceto witness a ritual denied to most,and you know with luck their offspringwill repeat the…

    Lou Faber

  • DEGENERATION

    I feel like I ought to beliving in Texas againfor everything, they say,is bigger in Texas, and youdon’t argue with a Texan. So much in my life is bigger now,a computer monitor that wouldpass for a moderate sized TV,with font so large a single pagefills the screen, and the tabletthe size of, but thank Godnot…

    Lou Faber

  • TIME WHEN

    There waa a time whennews wasn’t news, carriedby mouth, one personto another a game of telephonebefore that concept existed. Newspapers promised usthe news, but in the timeit took to write and print it,it was nearly news,or at worst slightly olds. Now the world is alwaysavailable instantly, but weknow or should, that halfof the time we…

    Lou Faber

  • ABYSMAL

    At the edge of the abyss,teetering on the precipiceyou need not tell us notto jump, need not tell usthe horrid details thatwould befall us if we did,blood and gore ininfinitesimal detail. It is more than enoughthat you point out to usthe sheer height at whichwe stand, the craggedfloor of the canyonawaiting those whoimagine they can…

    Lou Faber

  • DON’T BLAME ME

    On the day after I diethere is a real possibilitythat the sun will refuseto rise, an appropriateeffort at mourningwhich would be appreciatedif I were only thereto not see it. So I will just take iton faith, and as for thoseof you who survive meI will apologize in advancefor your day of darkness,although we both knowyou…

    Lou Faber