an old writer and his words

  • I WANT

    I want my poem to scream out so loudthat you will hear it even if you are notpaying attention or are busy with other thingsyou think are more important than poetry. Too often my poems just lie on the paper,or are dead pixels on a screen, whisperingwhat I wanted shouted, but I am so oftena…

    Lou Faber

  • GUTEI RAISES A FINGER 無門關 三

    One finger,a moment Guteione finger, that wayone finger, unity what have you learnedone finger,cut off,a moment in all directions no direction but stilla unity. A reflection on Case 3 of the Mumonkan 無門関 (The Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber

  • LAYMAN PANGYUN’S STRINGLESS LUTE

    If you ask your teacherto look in the directionof the path to enlightenmenthe will look downat his feet.If you ask him howfar down the pathyou must go, he willlook up without moving. A reflection on Case 99 of the Shobogenzo Koans 正法眼蔵 (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • SHUSHAN AND THE STONE WORKERS

    If, in searchingfor enlightenment youcome across a masterand you ask him in whichof the four cardinal directionsyou should seek your goalhe will tell you to looknorth, east, southand west at once.If you say you cannothe will tell you to lookin all four direction whichyou can do from whereyou are then standing. A reflection on Case…

    Lou Faber

  • THEY WANT

    They all want to tell mewhich direction I should go, thatno matter which direction I am goingit is not the right direction.They want to tell me what to say,that what I am saying is wrong,although I am wholly silent.They want to tell mewhat to think, what I shouldnot even think, although theycannot know my thoughts.They…

    Lou Faber

  • FOLLOW THE TRAIL

    To say that I am a wanderer isto vastly overstate the reality.I have wandered quite a bitin my life, but that wanderingwas always predicated on happenstanceand a true wanderer, by definition,wanders with the intent of doing so.I was never looking for anythingmerely a sense of direction, an ideaof how I got to this point, whatforces…

    Lou Faber

  • A PAUSE

    Now just stop and imagineif one event in your youth had gonein a wholly different direction,where would you be today?Follow this alternative universebounded only by imaginationand such amount of logic as you choose,and create the framework of a lifethat never existed until that moment.If you wish, pick another event,and another until you havea cosmos of…

    Lou Faber

  • BACKROADS

    When you drive on back roadsyou develop a differentsense of direction, of place.You know you’re in the Southby the trees, Spanish mosshanging like heavy rainand stealing the leavesof smaller trees, andall manner of thingshanging from or affixedbetween trees, a tire swing,something passing for a hammockand endless clotheslinesannouncing that herethe seasons are measuredby rainfall and temperaturesthat…

    Lou Faber

  • RAKUHO’S LAST MOMENTS

    If I ask you “do youwish to find enlightenment,”how do you answer?If you say you doyou are yet another stepin the wrong direction.If you say you do notwish to find enlightenment,why are you practicing?If you sit on the cushionin total silence saying nothingyour answer willecho off the walls. A reflection on Case 41 of the…

    Lou Faber

  • WHENCE

    When you ask me from wheremy family comes, do notlook surprised when I answerthat it depends on the directionof the wind, but with natureas no more than a passive observer.In my case it is the fickle windsof war and diplomacy that markmy origins, my maternal rootsdeeply planted in soil Lithuanian orperhaps Russian or briefly Polish.And…

    Lou Faber