an old writer and his words

  • CATHARTIDAE

    They circle slowlyeach in its own tierof a near cloudless sky,their wings stillas if frozen, ridingthe breeze, dippingand rising, going nowhere,needing nowhere,riding, riding, lookingdown at the wetland,and circling, untilwith a shift in the breezethe vulture vortexshifts east, and youwatch them shrink,thankful that theyare simply outfor a flight, and notfinding a mealin the reedsand treeswhere allthe…

    Lou Faber

  • HEAVEN, UTAH

    We would sit around the small parkas evening made a hasty retreatto somewhere, anywhere more livelythan Salt Lake City in the heart of summer. We’d pass a jug of whatever wascheapest at the state package store,usuall Gallo this or that, and roll jointswhich made their way around our circle. The cops would drive by every…

    Lou Faber

  • TOZAN’S DHARMA BODIES 正法眼蔵 語十語

    If I ask you“does a circlehave both insideand outside,” what do you say.If you cut it intothree pieces, whichhas inside, which outsideand what of the third? A reflection on Case 55 of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo) Koans

    Lou Faber

  • TO ALLEN

    Tell me more about death, I said put it into words, that’s your specialty so open your mouth from amid your black jungle of a beard now white, I want a noise, a howl. Why the hell do I hear only silence, I know it’s the sound of one hand clapping, but I demand more…

    Lou Faber

  • AROUND IT

    It is remarkably simple, really, a single circular brush stroke in a monochrome black on rice paper, always nearly perfectly round, never is the circle complete, always some small thing left wanting. You stare at it, more at the small gap, imagining it filled, hoping it cannot be for it holds out the promise that…

    Lou Faber

  • ENSO IT GOES

    I spent much of yesterday trying to draw perfect enso. You would think it easy to draw the simple circle, one easy stroke, but my efforts suggest otherwise. It is my Western mind, my teacher once suggested, always linear, this moment next to that, and then the one that must naturally follow. If not a…

    Lou Faber

  • TOZAN’S DHARMA BODIES 法眼蔵 語十語

    If I ask you “Does a circle have both inside and outside?” what do you say? If you cut it into three pieces, which has inside, which has outside and what of the third? A reflection on case 55 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber