an old writer and his words

  • IMPEDIMENTS

    Pause for a moment and considerwhat you truly think of the window,stared at but never seen, at worstan impediment, at best a shield.Is that why it gathers dirt and dust,a vain attempt to establish a presencethat we quickly try to deny again.Doors have an easier time of it forwe must acknowledge them, bidthem a handshake…

    Lou Faber

  • SO CLOSE AND YET

    Some say that we were oncebriefly so close you couldproperly call us one person.I know it did not last, and Igave up looking for youfor the longest time, althoughI always felt the connectionbetween us had never weakened.Years later I did get withineight or so feet of you but younever acknowledged my presenceso I moved on…

    Lou Faber

  • HOW MANY

    The better question, the onefor which there can beno real answer, ishow many couples of our agewould be together today,would never have gotten together,if we had cell phonesand tablets when we were young.The use of that word alonestrongly hints at whatI imagine that answer to be.A telephone, landlinethey now call it, required presence,required you to…

    Lou Faber

  • UNDER THE BED

    There was a ghostor two for a short while,that lived under my bedwhen I was three or four. My mother said theywere not real, she couldn’tsee them when she looked,so they were all in my mind. I had to tell her that youdon’t ever actually see ghosts,you just know they are therebecause you sense their…

    Lou Faber

  • ODE TO THE HOUSE CAT

    I have concluded that God created the catin a moment of exhaustion or of extreme pique.How else to explain such a soft fur covered creaturecapable at once of a gentle caress and a clawlunging out at a hand or face deemed too close.Why else this projectile constantly launchedonly at those places it was not to…

    Lou Faber

  • OH MY GOD

    On the subway there was a placardtelling me and all of the other riderswhere we could find God, promisingsalvation if we made the search. Someone had scrawled beneath it“God is ded.” I was left to wonderif the writer also thought that Godwas now somehow deceased, and how you would knowif that were really the case,…

    Lou Faber

  • SEPPO’S TURNING THE WHEEL 正法眼蔵 三十八

    The wisest of men,when asked at what timeit is best to pursue the Way, will answer when a thousand starshave made their presence known.The wisest student will saywhen cleaning myselfby bathing in the mud.This will become clearwhen the frogconsumes the dragon. A reflection on Case 35 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • NANSEN AND THE LAND DEITY 鐵笛倒吹 十八

    When you comeinto this townwe know you are coming,when you enterthis room weknow you will arrive.It is only whenwe cannot discernyour presencethat your spirithas truly arrived.Contemplate thisover a bowl of riceshared with mountainand wind. A reflection on Case 18 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • SHADOW

    I want to be your shadow,and not in your shadow,but the shadow itself,so that I might be with you,often unnoticed, forgottenbut present in the lightof day and night. It is a closenessI deeply want, withoutintruding, a presenceyou have with you always,for that is what loverscrave in silence, something morefor which they dare not ask.

    Lou Faber

  • SHOWERS

    We sat on our lanai last nightin our twin rockers, the catcurled close by but carefullyremoved from the rockersand stared into the sky hopingmeteors would grace uswith their fleeting presence. The moon did appear, shroudedin thin clouds, spectral ghostwaxing slowly in hiding, butthe stars had fled this night,fearing the rain thatthe cloud mantle promised. We…

    Lou Faber