an old writer and his words

  • MURDER

    It is one thing to murder your little darlings, as writers like to say, but as a poet it is wholly another thing to murder your children, those you have raised from birth on the page, tended with care hoping they might one day leave home and find their place in the world. How do…

    Lou Faber

  • COLUMN B

    In college, as an English majorI chose Chaucer as my mandatoryColumn B on the menu, Shakespearemy easy Column A choice since the bardand I were at least passingly familiaralthough he claimed not to remember me.Milton just wasn’t my cup of meadso he easily became the odd man out.I listened to the lectures, got comfortablewith the…

    Lou Faber

  • DATED

    The history books tell methat Gaius Julius Caesarthe great emperor of Romedied on March 15, 44 B.C.E.In my dream last nightI ran into Caesar and hesaid he was not happy thatthe month named afterhis nephew, the one he choseto succeed him had as manydays as did his, it should,he complained, have hadat least one if…

    Lou Faber

  • LONGER

    Some may wonder why, lately,it is taking me forever to reada relatively short novel when Inormally read at warp speed.The last time this happenedit was either Calvino’s IfOn A Winter Night . . . orperhaps Michael Ondaatje’sThe English Patient bothof which presented the sameobstacle that I could not clear.With those books and Rulfo’sPedro Paramo I…

    Lou Faber

  • COMPASSION

    You cannot discover compassion, itisn’t something you can buy on Amazonor find along the side of a rural road.It cannot be found in books, or giftedby ministers who promise anythingfor a tithe and pledge of your soul.It is something that exists within you,much as curiosity exists within a catalongside its own form of compassionthat nature…

    Lou Faber

  • FOR ME OR THEE

    Do not ask me why I write poetrynor for whom I write poems.You will not be pleased by the answer.You assume I have an audience in mindwhen I pick up the pen and put it to paper.That would be a false assumptionfor only the occasional poet writeswith a specific audience in mind.The rest of us…

    Lou Faber

  • YOU OF COURSE, OR NOT

    Someone, at a reading, asked me“who do you write for?”I avoided the obvious answer,“You” since he was there lesthe say someone dragged him alongmost unwillingly and my readingconfirmed his initial reluctance.The honest answer is that I writefor those who might stumbleacross my words, might seethem online browsing, or comeacross them in a coffee shopwhere I…

    Lou Faber

  • APP-LICATION DENIED

    I can still recall my grandmother saying,whenever she thought I should be outsiderather than sitting in my room with a book,that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Jewsdid not believe in the devil and that,in any event my hands were engagedin holding the book and turning pages.I…

    Lou Faber

  • A READING

    He walks up to the podiumsmiling at the introduction he wrotedelivered by someone who likelyhad never read his work, and set his bookand notes down on the lectern.As he begins to read he cannot let onthat he is a magician poet for theywould demand a trick and allthat he is prepared to do this nightis…

    Lou Faber

  • CRIME SCENE

    It was far and away the worstcrime scene he could rememberand he had been at it for many years.Over here were the bodiesof anapests and dactylsmotionless where they fell,oh how he wanted to pulla white sheet over themfor his sake if not for theirsfor they were beyond caring.By the wall he saw a trocheehalf draped…

    Lou Faber