an old writer and his words

  • CASSANDRA IN FLORIDA

    She is large, and largely immobileand occupies the bench by the roadthat encircles the property like a noose. She does this each day, a crustor more of stale bread tucked awayin a pocket of her always floral housedress that envelopes herand the bench she occupiesas a monarch on her throne. The ibis see her coming…

    Lou Faber

  • OH, HELL

    You say that I am an apostate,hell bent, hell bound, soon to meetthe hell hound awaiting my arrival. You have condemned me for thoughtsthat deviate from your own, youare the guardians of the Word, you say, although whose words you guard is everharder and harder to discern, certainlynot those of He who died for saying…

    Lou Faber

  • TOO SOON

    The leaves will soon begintheir descent from the small tree,already brown, their beautydeparting before they do so. They are bilobular, an odd word,but one that belongs in a poem,even this one it seems, and it istheir shape that you first notice. The tree will all to soon be naked,branches sticking into the airas if searching…

    Lou Faber

  • GENSHA’S THREE VEHICLES 正法眼蔵 四十語

    Describe this momentwithout use of word or sound –see where you arewith eyes pressed tightly closed,hear a song with utter silence,taste the pure mountain airreach out and touchthat which has no shapeor form, no essenceand you sitin the middleof reality. A reflection on case 45 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • THE GRADUATE

    You really ought to pauseand wonder just how differentthe world might be todayif in that crucial momentthings had gone ina wholly different direction. A single moment canset the course for allof the moments that follow,a definite future pluckedfrom an infinite arrayof possibilities. I mean, of course,that moment whenMr. McGuire, in the guiseof Walter Brooke turnsto…

    Lou Faber

  • DICTIONARY

    I set out this morningwith my large dictionaryto find the perfect wordto describe the sky, the sunjust peering over the roofof a distant house, the fewclouds aflame in a silent fire. I knew there was a wordfor what I saw in the dictionary,for there is a wordfor everything if you searchlong and hard enough, butafter…

    Lou Faber

  • HYAKUJO’S SECOND VISIT 正法眼蔵 語十四

    You may come asking questions,and perhaps the teacherwill answer you with a discourse.If you go deaf and hear nothing,if the words flitlike so many mayfliesjust as soon gone,if no word finds purchaseyou will have a graspthe heart of the Dharma. A reflection on Case 54 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • WHAT’S IN A WORD

    It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, a pictograph usually five or fewer, and a word, but a single one by definition, while a word, with two exceptions, has at least two letters, and with the same two exceptions, a letter is always wordless but can be symbolic. The Hawaiian language…

    Lou Faber

  • REASON

    I write poems about Wisconsin because I love the sound of the word cheese.

    Lou Faber

  • WORD

    archetypes symbols arrayed arranged precise meanings elusive multiplicative hearer dependent no Carrollean wishes fortresses erected below the tide line await waves minor etchings Durer or trivial seen or ignored Lot cast either diamond or salt pillar eroded by rain adrift torn by tongues cast to ash. First appeared in Eureka Literary Magazine Vol. 5, No.…

    Lou Faber