an old writer and his words

  • PAUSE

    The world ended yesterdayjust as predicted, and thenrestarted, and nothing at allseemed to change yeteverything was slightlydifferent, a little askew. I noticed it, although no onearound me detected it,went about their dayas though nothing happened. The preachers didn’t foreseeit coming, hadn’t predicted it,glad when the restart did notsignal the end of days, for theywere no…

    Lou Faber

  • SO SIOUX ME

    Remarkably fewSiouxlive in Sioux Fallsor Sioux Cityalthough theyhave fewreservationsabout doingso. First Published in the 2005 Scars Publications Poetry Wall Calendar

    Lou Faber

  • NO BOIL

    Not so much watchedas casually gazed at, andnot a pot but a smartphone,which had best not boil. No ring, not this daylost in what, an absentmind, thoughts of self,not unexpected but wanted. Distance real becomesdistance virtual, emptylater explained, wordsof apology, forgiveness but a lingering scar thatwill recede, reappearthat laughter may coverbut never fully erase.

    Lou Faber

  • FACING

    The face in the mirrorwas surprisingly older today,and I can’t imagine that Iwill ever look that old,at least not for quite some time. I wanted to ask him howhe had aged so badly, but knewthat it would be bad mannersto comment on his appearance,so I smiled and he in returm. I suppose one day I…

    Lou Faber

  • JOSHU ROTATES THE CANON

    If you ask meto grasp the DharmaI will read each wordas I unroll the scroll,but that is but a small partof grasping it.The rolling up,the placing back,the bow and the returnto my waiting cushion,each is a reverent grasping. A reflection on Case 74 of the Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) Koans

    Lou Faber

  • FUBAR

    While I admit that Iam rather an optimistyour pessimism leaves mewith several questions. When you said thingsgo south in a hurrywhere do they landand what airline do they use? And when things goto hell in a handbasketof what is the basket madeand whose hand carries it to hell? And yes, your hardly needto tell me…

    Lou Faber

  • BENT ARROW

    He would never understand how time developed a flexibility that defied the laws of physics. An hour, a minute, a second, they were all standard measures. Each the same as every other. Yet lately they had changed, flexed. For the most part they had gotten shorter, shrunken. He knew that wasn’t possible until he remembered…

    Lou Faber

  • HABIT

    When you say, she said,that you are a creatureof habit, I have a hardtime imagining you asany sort of nun, or evena monk for that matter. Perhaps, he responded, Ishould emulate KingHenry and start my ownspinoff church, wherethe priestly vestmentswould be jeans and tees. But I would require thatparishioners not weartie dyes on Sunday andCrocs…

    Lou Faber

  • MUSINGS

    The poet muses: I wonderif a cat purrs when no oneis in the same room.I suppose we could put ina microphone and find out.Schrodinger comments:if there is no microphonethe cat is purring andthe cat is not purring,and what is the half-life of a poem. First Published in the 2005 Scars Publications Poetry Wall Calendar

    Lou Faber

  • LIFE, ABBREVIATION

    Arrival noted, 11:30 P.M.delivery normal, babyprepared for agency, motherreleased in two days, babyto foster care, thento adoptive parents. No memories, save one,a fall, bathroom, headbleeding, black and whitefloor tile, radiator harderthan child’s skull. Now 70, the same person,a lying mirror each day,a small cemetery, WestVirginia, a headstonea mother finally,a life of mourning.

    Lou Faber