an old writer and his words

  • GOZO AND THE FOURTH ANCESTOR 正法眼蔵 語十一

    If you sitI will bring you a flowerbut it will fall.If you walkweeds will grow upbetween your toes.Flower, weed and youare born and dieeach feedingall of the others. A reflection on case 51 of the Shobogenzo Koans (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • FATHER AND SON

    We sat in the small boat,the motor still, drifting downstream,our lines in the water, the bobbersdancing in the morning breeze. He smiled, proud that we weredoing this together, he who knewless about fishing than I, his son,and I knowing next to nothing. I kept casting into the weeds,hoping they would tangle myline, free the worm…

    Lou Faber

  • BELLY OF THE BEAST

    From within the belly of the beast Sheol is a placid place, removed from the waves rattling the timbers, silent of the cries of the men berating their fate, uncertain as to the cause of their discomfort. Let Nineveh burn, lets its people scatter to the streets, let the King stare out at the destruction…

    Lou Faber

  • THE WEIGHT

    We are obligated to carry memories, and as we get older the burden grows ever heavier, we bend under its weight, knowing we dare not lose even one for once castoff, the weight is carried off like the smallest feather on a storming wind. Soon enough it is we who will become the burden that…

    Lou Faber