an old writer and his words

  • THREE HAIKU

    With every breathdeath is a moment closerand so is rebirth this unknown riveris not the one I stepped inone minute ago birth is terminalpromising unknown minutesdeath is a rebirth

    Lou Faber

  • TWO HAIKU

    A lone ginkgo leafclings to the now barren branchdefying winter. Great blue Herons stareat the slowly passing cloudsobscuring their home.

    Lou Faber

  • FIVE BIRDS

    The cold winter breezepalm fronds shivering at dawnegrets remain still a thousand birds landengage in conversationa foreign language arriving at duskwhite ibis strive to decidewho is the alpha the cat sits watchingthe sandhill crane approachesthey speak to each other a single ibisstruts across newly mown lawnsdinner now awaits

    Lou Faber

  • A HAIKU

    golden rice shootsunder Fuji’s eye –farmer stops for tea First published in To Live Here: A Haiku Anthology, Wee Sparrow Press, 2023 Sometimes good things come in the smallest packages. This is a wonderful, international collection of haiku by some amazing poets. You can find it here, it is well worth the purchase:https://www.amazon.com/Live-Here-Haiku-Anthology/dp/8409528169/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2FVGMQCD12NUW&keywords=to+live+here+a+haiku+anthology&qid=1691607414&sprefix=to+live+here%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1

    Lou Faber

  • HARLECH CASTLE

    I stood on the rampartsthat cold, wet morninglooking out over the waitingIrish Sea, this day offeringonly rain and a November chill. Write haiku, she said to usand I thought of Bashoand Issu who never stoodon a 13th Century Welshfortress and never imaginedwriting about Llywelyngreat or not nearly so. In the rain and chillI scribbled furiously,retreated…

    Lou Faber

  • FIVE HAIKU

    The dawn cedes slowlyto the impinging sunlightbirds greet the new day The great egret liftsher wings embracing the cloudthe winter sun smiles on the barren branchthe red-shouldered hawk awaitsher mate and the sun sandhill cranes wanderalong the shore of the lakelooking for nothing the moon is a cupwaiting for night to fill itvenus sits empty

    Lou Faber

  • REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM

    Gertrude Stein saidpoetry is vocabulary,or so Simic reported it,but in that casewhat do we makeof Haiku, wherea poem at maximumcan use onlyseventeen words. Perhaps, if wefollow Levi-Strausshaiku is not poetrybut art, for all artis reductionand there is littleyou can doto reducea haiku further.

    Lou Faber

  • THREE HAIKU – SENSO-JI

    listen carefullyto the sound of the great bellbefore being struck cat stares at Buddhapigeons flock to ignore himpeople see nothing there is no cityinside the large gate, onlyBuddha and pigeons

    Lou Faber

  • 詩

    The Japanese inventedhaiku certain that a paintingof great beauty couldbe completed with onlya few strokes of the brush. The Japanese have no wordfor what we claim is higherorder poetry, academic andpedantic are two other Englishwords which easily apply.And the Japanese are hard putto comprehend so much of whatwe deem experimental, the result,a friend named Yoshi…

    Lou Faber

  • HAIKU

    I picked up a bookoff the shelf this morningone hundred haiku it was like sitting downa word starved man, tiredof searching for an alwaysdenied sustenance, and herelaid out before me, a repastof the sweetest grapes,bits of sugar caressinga tongue grown usedto the often bitternessof ill-considered prose. As midday approachedI knew that this was a mealto…

    Lou Faber