an old writer and his words

  • 2:15

    At precisely 2:15 tomorrow afternoonsomething will happen somewhereand neither you nor I will be thereto see it, nor will we know that it happened.Neither of us can say for certainwhat we will be doing at that time,and perhaps where we will be thenThere is a kind of sadness in thisso many possibilities disappearingbefore they can…

    Lou Faber

  • ON ARRIVAL

    When I arrived it was as thoughyou had expected me, althoughneither of us had anticipated meeting.You wondered if we had metin some former life, but I wasthen a skeptic for circumstancehad never really conspiredto cause me to cede my tightgrip on what I was certainwas the only possible reality.When that evening endedmy flotilla of certainties…

    Lou Faber

  • CHUYU’S MONKEY

    If you ask a true masterto explain enlightenmentto you, if you believehis answer, you are deludedand the master has givenyou a map to the truth.If the master says nothingand you doubt he knowsabout enlightenment, youare deluded and no mapwill set you on the path. A reflection on Case 72 of The Book of Equanimity (従容錄,…

    Lou Faber

  • KEMPO’S ONE STROKE

    If you try and followthe path of a masteryou will be lostin a forest of doubt.If you ask the masterwhere your path ishe will look downand stareat your feetin silence.Will you start walking? A reflection on Case 61 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)

    Lou Faber

  • THAT SUMMER

    That summer was onehe would always remember.She was special, she told him soand he had no reasonto doubt her. Thatand he was one to fallso easily into whathe thought was love.It lasted well into August,when she said it was over.He did not understand whybut he was not one to argueso he consigned herto a memory…

    Lou Faber

  • THEATER OF THE ABSURD

    If Aristophanes were suddenlyto arrive here, he would no doubtpause, but with the eye he had,would soon discover such a treasuretrove of material, he could producecomedies to last several lifetimes. The problem would be in findingthe right audience, for here we havelittle taste and patience for the sortof comedy at which he was so adept,and…

    Lou Faber

  • BRAD AND I

    Its painful to now say itbut perhaps Uncle Samgot it partially right whenhe shaved our heads andhad us march aroundLackland Air Force Baseas the war raged on in Vietnam,but when you talk about Uncle Sam,the bar is set rather low. We did all look ridiculous,from the large guy who oncewas the town bully for certainto…

    Lou Faber

  • WANDERING NO MORE

    In my dreams I wanderedthe alleys of Lisbon searchingfor a familiar face, and manycame close, but no man stopped meand asked if I was, by chancehis son, for he dreamed Iwas what a son of hiswould look like. Now I have no need to wanderfor I know he is ina military cemeteryin Burlington, New Jersey,and…

    Lou Faber

  • THE POET?

    He stood in front of the classin a more than half empty lecture halland leaned into the podium, almost smiling. He was here, a real poet, half famousby his own reckoning, totally so by ourssince he was rumpled, as a poet ought,his sport coat tweedy and ill fitting. Still we harbored some doubts,for there was…

    Lou Faber

  • BUDDHA AND HILLEL DINE TOGETHER

    The meeting occurred by chance,two old men sitting in the same parkstaring at the same empty chess boardas the waves of the Stygian Sealapped against the break wall,the ferryman now at the helmof the great cargo ship.“So,” said Hillel, “you come here often?”Old, bent Buddha paused“as far as I know, I havealways been here, or…

    Lou Faber