an old writer and his words

  • NO REPLY

    You must be home now, or somewhere you can answer my call, and the busy signal or disembodied voice, purporting to be you can only mean that this very moment if you are calling me the busy signal or disembodied voice purporting to be me is giving you a momentary frustration rivaling my own. This…

    Lou Faber

  • IN MOTION

    This time when we move the question could be asked, are we moving to somewhere or away from somewhere or, you fear asking, away from someone. That may be a truth left unsaid, saying requires an explanation, a ripping open of a wound just scabbed over or still raw around the edges. And there is…

    Lou Faber

  • BETWEEN

    He says “the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line.” She says, “you will miss seeing of the amazing sights if you follow that inane rule, and by the way Einstein made it quite clear space is curved, and the line you think straight is not at all, so why not follow…

    Lou Faber

  • FARE WELL OR FAREWELL

    The sun has slipped back into its familiar failure mode lighting the sky, seeming to set the trees aflame, but offering precious little warmth. It is just practice for the season we all know is lurking just beyond the horizon, beyond our too short sight. We hope not to be here to greet it, having…

    Lou Faber

  • HAT

    It is hard for even me to remember that there once was a time when every man wore at hat, whether a simple watch cap or Greek fisherman’s hat, a fedora to be avoided if you value your life, a bowler of great propriety. I wear a simple Nepalese hat a reversible pillbox style, and…

    Lou Faber

  • WHERE?

    The moment you are certain that you know where you are going is the precise moment at which you become totally lost. The moment you realize that you have little idea where you are and none about where you will end up is when you found yourself. At this moment you are here which was…

    Lou Faber

  • SENĀTUS POPULUSQUE RŌMĀNUS

    As we walked slowly through the Forum the Coliseum receding into the late afternoon, the Virgins stood patiently as befits a priestess trained to avoid the stares of passing men, even tourists such as we were, the columns staring down reminding us of our youth despite the birthdays that we celebrated with the joy of…

    Lou Faber

  • EVERYWHERE BUT HERE OR THERE

    It is odd, when you stop and think about it, that our sense of place is dictated by places other then here. For centuries we were the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies moved around us — without us, no movement, but if t here were no suns, moons, planets or stars to…

    Lou Faber

  • ISLAND FEVER

    “It’s the difference between anthracite and lignite,” he said with a sort of all-knowing smirk. “Quite the contrary,” she snapped back “It’s the difference between pahoehoe and aa.” He clearly wasn’t pleased,” those examples are like night and day, and you’re in the dark.” “You can’t begin to tell between makai and mauka, but I…

    Lou Faber

  • RIVER CROSSING

    We crossed the Hudson this afternoon on a Dutch named bridge in a driving rain so strong you could hear little over the beat of the wipers throwing sheets of water. You wondered why the superstructure was only on the Eastern end. I wondered why they had to have a Dutch name no one can…

    Lou Faber