an old writer and his words

  • DOMICILE (Corrected Version)

    NOTE: My new book is here at last. My latest collection of poetry and short stories has just been published by Plain View Press. Since you have been following and reading my work if you would like more information about Free of the Shadow, just click here for a special offer. I read my poemto…

    Lou Faber

  • DONGSHAN’S ILLNESS

    If you tell your teacherthat you are feeling painduring your practicehe will ask you wherethe pain is.If you point to a partof your body he willturn away but if youpoint to your headhe will tell you thatyou can heal yourself. A reflection on Case 98 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • FORESHADOWING

    In my dream we are sittingin a small Italian restaurant.Just where it is located isnot at all clear, but it doesnot matter in the least.I am peering at you overthe menu, you are simplyreading yours decidingon what you will order.We have been here beforeand I know we will beholding hands acrossthe table once we order.I…

    Lou Faber

  • AFFIXED

    I can only begin to imaginehow utterly strange I must lookto the Great Blue Heron standingin the wetland behind our home.What must he make of this odd creaturewith thick legs that seemdisproportionately short comparedto their bodies, why their neckshave such limited mobility, whythey cannot look behind themselvesor scratch their chins with their toes.But the birds…

    Lou Faber

  • A SMALL WONDER

    It always amazes me thateveryone around me seems to agewhile I know that I have notand that it is the mirror’s liesthat try and make me think I have.True, my body cannot do muchof what it once could but thatI know is less a factor of ageand more one of over use,for even the best…

    Lou Faber

  • JUST LIKE US

    We love nothing more than to anthropomorphize. It is one of our defining characteristics. It makes our lives simpler since we can relate more easily to people than animals or things. And after all, we did make God in our image, or is it the other way around? Does God deimorphize us? Anyway, we know…

    Lou Faber

  • ONCE, AGAIN

    His mind was dancingwhile his feet were firmly anchoredto the unyielding ground.It has long been this wayhis mind demanding a freedomhis body is incapable of granting.But in his dreams his body hasinfinite flexibility, can moveas the mind needs only to imagine.those moments of freedom, he knowswill depart when the day once againimprisons him, locking himin…

    Lou Faber

  • IN THE PROPER ORDER

    You would think that when you have hadthree fathers they would have hadthe decency to die in the order in whichthey came into your life, that is, after all,the natural order of things or the logical one.My original, who I found more than two decadesafter he finally found peace in 1987 is nothingmore that an…

    Lou Faber

  • ON AGING

    It is not the aging that is hard, he said. Aging is easy, you don’t have to do anything except keep breathing, eating and sleeping when you can. No, aging is not hard at all. What is hard, he added with a grimace, is looking in the mirror and realizing that your body has betrayed…

    Lou Faber

  • FALLING APART

    In my minds eye, whichfortunately for it cannot hopeto see the mirror, I am sixteen.No, cancel that, at sixteen Iwas still chubby to be kind.So let’s make me 18, evenif I had almost no hair thanksto the U. S. Air Force, but Iwas as fit as I would ever be.No, that won’t work either,for I…

    Lou Faber