an old writer and his words

  • ENSO

    In the interstitial momentbetween birth and deatha universe comes into existence,something that never before existedand existed always, newand well-known, unseenand visible for eternity. Measure it wellfor it is incapable of measurement,and ends without warningand precisely on schedule.In the momentary breaththat marks the transit,we proceed nowhereand cannot return to where we began. Reprised from March 27,…

    Lou Faber

  • DAIJI’S INNER CULTURE 鐵笛倒吹 十語

    Eyes can look withinand discover a boundless universebut the tongue alonecan speak only soundsthat go falseas they dance away unseen. The silence of zazenspeaks the dharma,the teisho is offered mutely. The space betweeneye and tongueis but three inchesor an unbridgeable void. A reflection on Case 15 of the Iron Flute Koans.

    Lou Faber

  • T-CK T-CK

    I cannot determine whymy clock only tocks, as ifsomewhere back timeits ticks beat a hasty retreat. My life is increasingly likethat, a growing series of disconnects,as if life itself, outside of meis enduring a progressive dementia. Perhaps I shouldn’t complain,for both time and I knowthat every one of those ticksis owed to me and I…

    Lou Faber

  • HEAVEN, ONLY SLIGHTLY OUT OF REACH

    God is fixed in the firmamentseen as puppet master by somepatrician uncle, small childendlessly shifting blocksin new, transitory universes.All things recede from a point,have since the creationand that point, dimensionlessis God, vast and infinite.It swings lazily, back, fortha needle in its cusp tracinglines in the bed of sandin constant motion as weand earth, and all…

    Lou Faber

  • GAZING

    As a child I would often stare up into the night sky. The stars, the planets, at least the two I knew I could see. My parents didn’t think my behavior odd, they assumed I wanted to be a scientist and explore the universe. I let them believe this. It was far easier than explaining…

    Lou Faber

  • DIMENSIONS

    It is far less a matter of space for we have that in profusion if mostly always beyond reach, but unnecessary anyway given our pervasive fear of being alone while always trying to define our particular uniqueness. The universe has a vastness we can never hope to grasp and so we turn inward, where space…

    Lou Faber

  • DREAMING OF GOLDILOCKS

    The universe is more vast than we could begin to contemplate forty billion galaxies of forty billions stars, thrust out a child, an aged one bent by time mothers with children in tow, giants standing above with names belying their stature. Sitting here, pen in hand it is comforting to know there is another, and…

    Lou Faber

  • COSMOS HAIKU I

    I called to the moon and it refused to answer. I bless the silence. A galaxy born Spirals through space while we, here see only our sun Deep within my mind a new universe is born as an old one dies.

    Lou Faber

  • COSMOLOGY

    Our purpose is to understand and then explain the order of the Universe: the logic of the neat array of stars from our centrally located observation deck, the galaxies as so many fractals seeking to hide their organization. We have no ability to control and lack the mechanisms to make all but the most minute…

    Lou Faber

  • MUSING (4 HAIKU)

    Out the plane window a lake or a sea of clouds Why does it matter?   during an eye blink the butterfly spreads its wings galaxies collapse   Cats curl in furred sleep the moon crawls across the sky a monk awakens   leaves cling to the trees the rivers flow more slowly the stone…

    Lou Faber