an old writer and his words

  • OVER UNDER SIDEWAYS DOWN

    He is fond of saying that it is “water under the dam,” and she constantly calls him on it, reminding him that water goes over the dam. He smiles when she does this and reminds her that it isn’t a dam if water is going over it, and it is mindless to say its water…

    Lou Faber

  • SAYING, NO PLEASE

    “Every once in a while,” he says and the screeching in my head drowns out what follows. I know what he means of course, that is the easy part, but the gulf between meaning and saying is so broad I can stop and count the traffic of ideas floating by, each seeking its own purchase,…

    Lou Faber

  • CLOCKING IN

    Once upon a time is the oddest of expressions, for nothing is upon time, this one, or any other. And can we be certain what we think once was is committed to a memory, which is fallible in the best of times. or more precisely, in the best of time, for time cannot be plural,…

    Lou Faber

  • HELL, FAR LEFT CORNER

    I suspect that I am not alone in wondering if there is a corner of literary hell set aside for those who foist clichés on the world and at the head of that table should sit the fellow who first said “time marches on.” Even Einstein realized that time is relative, and as one who…

    Lou Faber

  • TIME OUT

    She is fond of saying that time is on our side although we both know that time does not take sides, is incapable of action, is passive in passage. It is something of which we may never have enough but we are certain no one has more than we in this moment. She cannot imagine…

    Lou Faber

  • OH, UNSWEET ROSE

    There are days when nothing less than a full blown cliche will suffice, and any attempt at brevity will result in an utter and total failure and wit will mourn it soul. You might as well spit in the wind, because you simply cannot swim against that tide, and it and time will never wait…

    Lou Faber

  • PLACES

    My mother, the goddess of cliches, was overly fond of repeating that “There’s a place for everything, and everything should be in its place.” I must admit that, in addition to hating her cliches and platitudes, I grew ever less certain of my place in her world. She was more than willing to assume my…

    Lou Faber