an old writer and his words

  • FRITTERED AWAY

    This will be a fraught year whenonly questions will aboundand answers will seek shelteraway from our endless dissection.But one question will be answeredand our fate may well hang in the balance,for this is yet another yearwhere we determine whetherthe truths are truly self-evident.For soon enough we will havea new government, whether it isa replay of…

    Lou Faber

  • SUBJECTION

    We have now fully masteredsubjection, some say we havedone it so often it is nowinherent in our nature.It is hard to argue that pointand we are now practicing iton more than other groups,we have turned our practiceon nature and her species.Birds are a perfect example.Applying our tried and truemethods we have slowly takentheir territory, forcing…

    Lou Faber

  • CHANGING TIMES

    The real problem with prophecy,at least of the Biblical sort, is thatit has failed to keep up with ourever changing, mutating times. We no longer tend to use spearsin much of the world, and the callfor pruning hooks has diminishedto the point few know what they are. And thanks to John Deere and allof the…

    Lou Faber

  • INTO THE INFERNO

    The teacher no doubt thought it was funny hanging a banner on the door to his classroom reading “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.” He would snicker as the new students would look at it with puzzled expressions while he remained silent. Some might even ask but he would always gnore or dismiss the question. That…

    Lou Faber

  • MEMO TO MEMOIR

    I will recitemy absurdist life,and do so without coercionsave my need to tell it.Imagine a new wave filmin French, perhaps,directed by Dali and youmay approach my truth.If this is beyond you, Idon’t care, do you?In the end it is youthe listener who writesmy story, my life,and I am merelythe pen and paper,the prompt, so pleasehelp…

    Lou Faber

  • IT’S GREEK TO ME

    They would deny it, of course,just as their progeny do today,but so many of the ills of this agecan be laid at the feet of the Greeks.Two of their inventions have led usinto the hellscape we call thisabnormal world in which we live.The first, of course, wasthe invention of politics, politikathe Greeks labeled it,and aloneit…

    Lou Faber

  • A PAUSE

    Now just stop and imagineif one event in your youth had gonein a wholly different direction,where would you be today?Follow this alternative universebounded only by imaginationand such amount of logic as you choose,and create the framework of a lifethat never existed until that moment.If you wish, pick another event,and another until you havea cosmos of…

    Lou Faber

  • FOR A WORD

    Consider for a moment justhow different things might betoday, perhaps only in small ways,if one particular Mary hadnever been sainted, for thenthe asylum in London might wellhave had a different name, notSt. Mary’s of Bethlem for Bethlehem.If that had happened there wouldbe no bedlam in the world, tothe obvious frustration of politicianswho would have to…

    Lou Faber

  • NIGHT AT THE ALLUSIVE TAVERN

    He had been sitting there for hours, days,how many “last calls” had he heard?He watched Beckett and Eliot come and gobut he sat waiting, patiently, no Godot for him.He had long since lost his now empty pen,his pockets grown stuffed with damp cocktailnapkins, the story of his life bleeding slowlyinto the worn fabric of the…

    Lou Faber

  • QUANDRY

    There is an excellent reason that zazenis a largely silent practice.It is said you must be in the momentbut there is no other possible momentyou can be in at any given moment.If you think about being in the momentthe moment is lost to your thoughtsso you were never really in that moment.So perhaps you can…

    Lou Faber