an old writer and his words

  • NOT YOU, NOT NOW

    The cat ignored him totally this morning. She wouldn’t give him the time of day if she could have told time. It was surprising, and for him it was painful. He loved the cat, and he thought the cat loved him. Once he thought he saw her sneer but he knew cats did not do…

    Lou Faber

  • CAPACITY

    It is not that I am gettingforgetful as I grow older, it ismerely that I am replacingold information with new,my mind is large butits capacity is still finite. So if I forget your namewhen I see you, it is notbecause you do not matter,although that could be the case,it is simply that I nowremember the…

    Lou Faber

  • LOOKING

    As you look at him or herdo you see someone witha beauty you only wish you had,or someone you pityfor lacking your beauty? As they look at youdo they see someone witha beauty they only wish they hador someone they pityfor lacking their beauty? When I look at either of youI see a person like…

    Lou Faber

  • GRAMMATICALLY APART

    What sets us apartfrom other specieshas little or nothingto do with self-awarenessand everything to dowith parts of speech. The birds outsidemy window shun labels,think only of eating,mating, flight, of goingand arriving, of being. They know nothing of birth,do not fear death, for itis merely a label they cannotaccept or understand. It is left to our…

    Lou Faber

  • FIRST TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE TAPE RECORDED JOURNALS OF YETTA GOLDSTEIN

    ENTRY:  July 30, 1970 So, is this fakokteh box doing anything?  Hello, HELLO?  Buttons, now I’m a button pusher.  Some kind of secretary now.  Hello?  Oh, hell, if it’s on it’s on and if not that’s Saul’s problem.  So yesterday I tell my Saul, “You wouldn’t believe, we’re pregnant!”  And Saul says, “you mean you’re…

    Lou Faber

  • TAILORING

    My adoptivegrandfather could take bitsof cloth, a needle, threadand with magiclygnarled fingerscreate a garmentfit for royalty, to be wornby the old womanliving in the walkup down the street. I take wordsbits of ideasand hope,and with manicured fingerscreate whatI can only hopepasses for poetryto be ignoredby thoseliving nearbyin my suburb.

    Lou Faber

  • WALLS

    Someoneonce suggestedthat if you builda ten foot wallsomeone will bringan eleven foot ladder. I have alwayswanted to taketo the sky freelyand not in somemetal sarcophagus,to be a birdwithout limitationsbut all I have is an eightfoot ladderand I amstill afraidof heights.

    Lou Faber

  • HISTORY

    It was easierhaving no historyof my own, borrowedhistories are easily discarded. After a while, youbegin to think of the adoptedhistory as your own,and no one doubts you. I have a history nowcountries woven into my DNA, always presentbut never before seen. It is mine, I passed italong to my sons, andalthough it grows weakerit is a…

    Lou Faber

  • EXISTENCE

    I imagine I am the creatorI imagine I am the createdand I am the creatorand I am the createdI am both, I am neither. I exist because I think I existso I have created myself,just as you exist to me  becauseI think you exist, I am creator. I say I can touch you so youmust…

    Lou Faber

  • SEKISO’S SINGLE HAIR

    A thousand steps,one hundred thousand morealong the pathand the goalseems ever farther away. Stopand restin perfect stillness.You are there, it has walked with you. A reflection on Case 86 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber