an old writer and his words

  • BREATHING

    Somewhere at this very momenta baby takes its first breath,a man dies unexpectedly,a fledgeling bird takes flight,a star is bornor enters its death throes,one of the last of a species is gone,a battle is fought in a senseless war,a waterway is fouled with pollution,smog grips a city,an old man clings to memories.I am still aliveand…

    Lou Faber

  • IMPENDING

    At the most opportune moment it will happen. No one knows when that moment will occur so they must be ever vigilant. It will come possibly without warning and they do not want to risk missing it, for it may never happen again. So they devise, rehearse and prepare an elaborate scheme so that it…

    Lou Faber

  • ALL TOO SOON

    We know it is a matter of timebefore the rains will come,the hurricanes will wailand inundate our world.We have planned for thisand we know we are not ready.We will be overwhelmedas we are each time, homeslost to floods that risefrom an angry ocean tiredof not being heeded.We will bail, pump and mop,wage a losing battleagainst…

    Lou Faber

  • DA CAPO AL FINE

    “And then it all came crashing down around him.” That was going to be the last sentence in his novel. He had known it would be the last sentence for years for it was the perfect ending, one that left the reader wondering “what then?” Seeing it on the monitor only confirmed his judgment that…

    Lou Faber

  • THE NATIONAL TEACHER’S SEAMLESS TOMB

    If a teacher asks youwhether you are searchingfor this or for thathow do you answer him?If you say for thishe will frown, butif you say for thathe will also frown.If you say there isno this or that,there only is,he will smile the smileof the Buddha. A reflection on Case 84 of the Book of Equanimity…

    Lou Faber

  • A PEELING

    Why do we persistin peeling the onionas if expecting wewill find anythingother than onion below?We cling to false hopeknowing in the endthere will be nothingdespite our efforts.We are the oneswho curse the coreof the apple asspace taken wherefruit should benever imaginingthere could be nofruit if nature choseto grant our wish.

    Lou Faber

  • EDGING

    We are good at borders.As much as we like drawing them,taking a bit more perhapsthan we ought, settling if forcedfor what is right or at least just,we like crossing them more.There is adventure in crossinga border, more so if you can do itwithout being invited, seenor captured and turned away.How do you think we got…

    Lou Faber

  • HELPLESS

    When night finally concedes,and departs for the horizondragging off my dreamsand pulling its shadow behind itinto a thickening fog, a scrimthat hides the dawn’s arrival,I realize what has been lost.I have tried to grasp dreamsas they recede but it is graspinglimpid mercury that obeys nodirection or request save thatof gravity, and that reluctantly.They will be…

    Lou Faber

  • MISSING

    In my dreamI went for a walk alonga boardwalk but therewas no beach to be seen.I came across a little girlsitting, leaning againstthe railing, forlorn woulddescribe her fairly.I took off one of mygray socks, a black seamacross the toe, stuck iton my hand, nowa sock puppet.She smiled so Igave her the sock.She arose and seemedto…

    Lou Faber

  • ROBE

    Robe of liberationembodiment of emptinessin prescribed formonce Brahmin garbtattered strips of clothcarefully stitched togetherstitches made, pulledand resewn, bitsof dharma wornover the heartwanting silencebeneath the Bodhi treeawaiting the bell,the dawn,the triple recitation,the three prostrationsBuddhas and BuddhasIn waiting, abidingfailure and compassion.

    Lou Faber