an old writer and his words

  • QUANTUM

    The universe is bothenormously vastmeasurable only in metaphorand so infinitesimally small,an ideathat would fitin the cornerof a grain of sand.As you walk the beachgrasp universesbetween your toesand kick theminto the tideof the cosmos. First appeared in Litmora Literary Magazine, Issue 5 – Beyond the Cosmoshttps://www.litmoralitmag.com/faber-two-pieces

    Lou Faber

  • OCTOBER

    There is an infinite spaceAround us, a massive voidinto which universes tumbleand stars and planets are born.Outside, the maple leavesburning flame and crimsonspiral to the lawn, whichwaits to receive them.Autumn is the seasonwhen the earth prepares to dieand it is left to usto prepare the gravesite.The albino squirrel standson the fence rail, defyingme to find…

    Lou Faber

  • BEGINNINGS

    Some, myself once includedwonder where time and space beganfor all things must have a beginningif they are to have an endas we are certain we will too soon.I don’t stop and wonder whythat matters, how knowledge wouldchange anything at all.Species we have rendered extinctwould remain so, Van Gogh’s paintingswould see no less beautiful,Beethoven’s carefully crafted…

    Lou Faber

  • THE POWER

    You tell methat the keyto the universeresides in E.To Einsteinit was simplea point from whichthe universe arisesits final catafalque.How, I ask,can symbolic failurebe critical,what is so specialabout fivewhy ought I carefor the third degreeof a natural scaleI cannot hopeto ascend.Perhaps it isonly your eccentricity.You tell meto refine my visionto consult Eulerbut it is fartoo transcendentalfor…

    Lou Faber

  • FOR RENE

    “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein (1936) Cogitodice clatteragainsta cornerof the universe,rolling the bonesof a thousandgenerationsone slidesinto the black holevoida losernextplayerto the lineboxcarsstacked as cordwoodinto the pitrottingthe snakestaresat a halfeaten applehooded eyescloseHawkingpresses keysindicatingchuckling First Published in Ionosphere, Vol. 1, Issue…

    Lou Faber

  • TIMING

    Time travel has becomea standard trope of science fiction,a protagonist going back in timeby intent or circumstance, fearfulto take any action for thatmight change the universeand the future as it would have beencollapses and is replaced bysomething wholly different.But this is where logic fails,for the traveler from the futurecannot affect the futureor he could not…

    Lou Faber

  • KNOWLEDGE

    I suppose I ought not be shockedwhen my grandson, all of twelve,explains to me the conceptof the expanding universe, norwhen asked about the capitalof Burundi fires back Gitegaand adds that Burundi has threeofficial languages, English, Frenchand of course Kirundi, and I nodhoping my ignorance isn’t obvious.I don’t dare ask how he knowslest he says everyone…

    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

  • NIGHT AT THE ALLUSIVE TAVERN

    He had been sitting there for hours, days,how many “last calls” had he heard?He watched Beckett and Eliot come and gobut he sat waiting, patiently, no Godot for him.He had long since lost his now empty pen,his pockets grown stuffed with damp cocktailnapkins, the story of his life bleeding slowlyinto the worn fabric of the…

    Lou Faber

  • BEING A PART

    He wanted, most of all, to bea part of something, butsomething that had never existed,a dissonance in an orderly universethat was slowly devolving into chaos.He was a shadow, seen only by dayand often ignored, not invisible, but nearly so.He would soon emerge from the darkness,welcome the day, the sun’s too briefappearance, his footsteps would echoa…

    Lou Faber