an old writer and his words

  • A PAUSE

    They ride the tides ashoreby the thousands and tens of thousandsnesting lightly on the waiting sand.We stroll the beach struggling for a footingfor which they have no need,stopping frequently to pick one up,look at it carefully and if it passesour completely arbitrary test,pocket it for display at home.We watch the gulls, pelicansand osprey ride the…

    Lou Faber

  • JUST IMAGINE

    Just imagine that you would be immortal.How would this affect your life, how wouldyou act differently, which relationships wouldyou end, which of those you have avoidedwould you try to begin, or take up again,Interesting thought isn’t it, easier thanthe real question that hangs over all of us,what would you do differently if you knewthat you…

    Lou Faber

  • THE MISSING POWER

    We have granted ourselvestremendous powers that oncewere reserved to the Gods.We have long overthrown themand assumed their thrones.We can destroy cities, evencountries on a whim, andif not careful can eradicateall life on this planet.We can harness rivers,the wind, the sun, the atom.Yet despite all our powerwe cannot avoid growingold, we cannot avoid dyingfor that is…

    Lou Faber

  • A TROIS

    Each night I crawl under the sheetscurled against the woman I loveand beside me slips your ghost.For sixty years you were no morethan a fleeting dream faceless, nameless,an infrequent visitor to my galleryof hopes, desires, and wishes.You never had a face, did Ihave one you could remember beforeI was plucked from you too soon, youlurking…

    Lou Faber

  • SEASIDE HAIKU

    The ocean singsof its abundant lifewe hear only waves On the tidal pondthe moon admires itselfno one will see it On the waterI cried a thousand tearsthe sea accepts them

    Lou Faber

  • MEMORIAL PRAYER

    We are rapidly approachingthe forty-ninth day since youdied early that morning.We knew you would be dying,you told us so, told usnot to worry, it was your time.Still each day we recitethe memorial verses, hopeothers in the sanghado as well, hope that yourtransition out of this lifehas been made, in somesmall measure, easierby our daily recitation.We…

    Lou Faber

  • HOME

    I don’t know what I expected to findstanding on the corner of a residential streetin Charleston, West Virginia, the domeof the capitol peering up in the distance.That is not surprising, the orange brick homewas much larger than I had assumed, but youlived there only a few years before leavingQuarrier Street to start a life of…

    Lou Faber

  • KARMA

    The birds offered metheir blessing this morningbefore lifting gracefullyfrom our wetlandinto another cloudless sky.They did so reluctantly,the blessing I mean,knowing what my specieswas capable of, whatwe had already doneto their ancestral habitats.They blessed me regardlessfor they understoodthe laws of karmaand would not wantto be forced in the next lifeto return as human beings.

    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

  • WOLFGANG

    I suppose it will sound odd, butthere was a time when, in additionto the Rock and Folk music I loved,classical music was a key partof my life and helped make me whatI am today: a now retired attorney.And not just any classical music,although I loved many of the masters,Beethoven, Schubert, Bach, others,(sorry Mahler, Shostokovich butlines…

    Lou Faber