Three Poems of Struggle against ‘The Dying of the Light’

POETRY FORMAT, 22 Dec 2025

Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service

15 Dec 2025 – These three recent poems of mine are a humble seasonal offering that is both alarmed by the ambience of darkness and encouraged by glimmers. Poetry is also my mode of speaking when normal language is stymied by unspeakable happenings. For me, poetry–whether read or written–is a valuable resource. I self-published a book of poems a few years ago with the title Waiting for Rainbows-I Find Myself still Waiting-Read with Gentle Eyes.

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The End of the Road?
19 Aug 2025

I yearn to know
the future
and yet
my dreams
seem grayer
than an overcast sky
crystal balls
roll toward
the sea
clouded over
of no use
a captivity of time
thou shall not
pass this gate
now never
thou shall not
KNOW
Condemned to die
At this gate
barring entry
ghosted by
eternal
curiosity
What is to come
will be foretold
after a light
from above
or within
shines green
by day
and night
through all
seasons
at the end of the road
where you
will be
waiting
and only
for me

**********************

Aspiring Royalism
21 Sep 2025

As if a crown prince

impatient

for a crown to

fall from heaven

a dark miracle

landing on his head

Not accidentally

Nor dynastically

The American way

stealth and wealth

overt crime

as needed

Upending history

is part of the story

after all

if the Confederacy

is reborn

Why not the American Revolution

an outworn pride

to restore the worst

to renounce the best

Keeping the pomp

hiding the circumstance

indulging in state dinners

while being indulged

By the ghost royalty

of a dying kingdom

and dying king

the pageantry

alone survives

This is America

where kings ascend the throne

by stealth and wealth

No need for coronations

or dynastic entitlements

in MAGA Amerika

Enough to glow

in pale light

cast by reigning

oligarchs

Reinventing

the glitter with guns

swag and swagger

of salutes and sheiks

Farewell to nightmares

of freedom and equality

diversity inclusion

remembering forgetting

At this time

once proud citizens

bend their knees

comply by plunder

This is not America

This is the New America

Like the New Middle East

The sun no longer rises

Over deserts of the spirit

Darkness prevails

glimmers of light

here and there

signposts of hope

Awaiting coronations

of evil before

the next dawn

**********************

Advice to a Novice Poet
15 Dec 2025

Why waste words seeking truth

or beauty

on these arid

starless nights

My ancient brain

instructs

My heart shuts down

as storm clouds

Gather above the earth

hauntingly

Dooming human destiny

endangered

As never before

even more

As endangered as

snow leopards

With no church bells ringing

stillness seems better

Hanging out in gardens

clinging to solitude

On lookout for wildfires

here and there

Daydreaming about truth and trust

amid lies and bluffs

While mighty men play losers poker

with our future

Grifters who rarely smile

preside prevail

Claiming their toxic farts

a rare perfume

Always performing

partying at gallows

Satanic antics beneath

a blood-stained moon

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Prof. Richard Falk is a member of the TRANSCEND Network, of the TRANSCEND Media Service Editorial Committee, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law, Faculty of Law, at Queen Mary University London, Research Associate the Orfalea Center of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Fellow of the Tellus Institute. He directed the project on Global Climate Change, Human Security, and Democracy at UCSB and formerly served as director the North American group in the World Order Models Project. He also is a member of the editorial board of the magazine The Nation. Between 2008 and 2014, Falk served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine. His book, (Re)Imagining Humane Global Governance (2014), proposes a value-oriented assessment of world order and future trends. His most recent books are Power Shift (2016); Revisiting the Vietnam War (2017); On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament (2019); and On Public Imagination: A Political & Ethical Imperative, ed. with Victor Faessel & Michael Curtin (2019). He is the author or coauthor of other books, including Religion and Humane Global Governance (2001), Explorations at the Edge of Time (1993), Revolutionaries and Functionaries (1988), The Promise of World Order (1988), Indefensible Weapons (with Robert Jay Lifton, 1983), A Study of Future Worlds (1975), and This Endangered Planet (1972). His memoir, Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim was published in March 2021 and received an award from Global Policy Institute at Loyala Marymount University as ‘the best book of 2021.’ He has been nominated frequently for the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009.

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