an old writer and his words

  • TOKYO NIGHT SCENES

    Scene 1Just off Shinjuku chuo koen North,nestled in the courtyardof the Green Tower, hidesJyoufuji Temple, serenein the first light of morning,the sun dancing off the ceremonialbell its striker poised, as ifwaiting to catch the windand to it sing its resonant song.Inside, the prayer mats awaitthe first supplicants of the daybelow the sandalwood altarand above it…

    Lou Faber

  • ODE TO THE GODS

    You, who have walked herethrough the ages,who have watcheda million suns swallowedby untiring waves,what is it you expect?There is nothing here for youthe spirits of the old oneshave long since fledour sharpened blades,retreated with the starsinto the hillsthat rise from forest.The animals will cometo you no morefor we have served them upas a sacrifice to…

    Lou Faber

  • SABBATH

    She could not understand whyanyone, really, would willinglygive up their Saturday morningto sit inside and recite prayershalf in a language that neitherthey nor most of the congregationspoke, and when I said some knewthe translations by heart, she added“then why not recite those.”She had a point, I knew, but wouldI easily concede, as if thatwould make…

    Lou Faber

  • TIME DOES NOT WAIT

    I sat today and staredinto the backyard, lookingcarefully for rabbits.None appeared today despitemy fond desire to see oneassuming it would beauspicious somehow.It is their year nowso I know they cango when and where they please.Perhaps they are lookingfor red banners of welcomeand I offer none of those forthe Buddhas on the altar sayDragon ought not…

    Lou Faber

  • COLOURS

    We hunted him as a stagacross his fields, trophywe called him red man,color of Ares, godssacrificed on our altar,his rivers run with his spirit.I am whitebereft of color,barren, a glarea desert stripped of life.It is I who wearCain’s mark, pluckedfrom the gardenthe sweet taste fadesmy lips are dry.You are blackan amalgam, greenof the grasses in…

    Lou Faber

  • A HASTY BURIAL

    They should have hadan altar, even Abrahamhad one when he was readyto execute Isaac, and the raminterceded, to his ultimate peril. They should have hada funeral, that is just commonsense and decency, but theywanted no such thing, justbe done with it, bury it away. I still mourn the deathof science for I know that itoperates…

    Lou Faber

  • IN MOURNING

    These days we collectively mourn those we have sacrificed on the holy altar of our ignorance. There was a time when we limited war to one per generation, but we now wage them in clusters, it being easier to deal with the interminable periods of boredom where we have nothing to do but imagine peace.

    Lou Faber

  • BEFORE THE TEMPLE

    They stood at the altar of the ancient temple and prayed for peace. They lit the joss bundle and placed it in the great cast iron burner. We all bathed in the smoke of a hundred bombs falling in perfect harmony.

    Lou Faber

  • PAPAL EDICT

    She said “now what they’ve taken away limbo” sounding a bit depressed, “not that you proceed express to the ferry dock, but that was a snap, all you were carefully taught is suddenly wrong or irrelevant. “It would be like Isaac,” I say, “climbing Mount Moriah with Abraham finding a ram tethered to a waiting…

    Lou Faber