{"id":150999,"date":"2020-01-06T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=150999"},"modified":"2020-01-02T09:45:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T09:45:32","slug":"forgetting-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/01\/forgetting-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgetting 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

31 Dec 2019 –<\/em> At this age, having exhausted prose options, I indulge myself\u00a0during holidays by sharing poems that seek also your indulgence. I searched 2019 for some glimmers of good news, and felt stymied. Of course here, there, everywhere\u00a0there were glorious private exceptions, yet hovering over the public marketplaces of the world I cringe beneath menacing storm clouds and below chaos and misery, and catastrophes waiting to happen. It is this spirit that I looked back on 2019, and yet I reject despair and pledge to fight for what I believe in 2020 with the conviction that it can happen–and of course should happen.<\/p>\n

******************<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

asphalt rain
\ndarkens green fields
\neco-extinction
\nflares Amazon skies
\nfake leaders slithering
\ntoward real dangers
\nhither and yon
\nseek safe havens
\ngated nations
\nhiding from truth
\nscreaming \u2018no\u2019
\nmigrants fleeing despair
\npleading \u2018please\u2019
\nhiding from evils
\nAung San Suu Kyi
\ndefending genocide
\nthis fallen Nobelist
\nbroadcasting abroad
\nher deadly message
\ntwo centuries ago
\nWalt Whitman
\narrived in our midst
\nsinging aloud
\nbewilderingly
\nof America\u2019s future
\nlater lost to predators
\nseizing their loot
\nrobbing the land
\nturning dreams
\nto wilting flowers
\nour grief becomes
\na betrayed destiny
\ntainted at birth
\nnatives driven
\noff their sacred land
\nof holy innocence
\nthe trusted voice
\nof Toni Morrison
\nis gone not lost
\nif we listen
\nif we listen
\nif we listen
\nall not yet all
\nlost futureless
\nnested eggs contain
\nour only hope
\nof what may yet come
\nof what to renounce
\nlet\u2019s start with gold
\nthen learn not to hate
\nkeep love joy truth
\nif we listen
\nif we listen
\nif we listen<\/p>\n

Santa Barbara, CA, December 31, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Richard Falk is a member of the\u00a0TRANSCEND Network<\/a>, an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University,\u00a0Distinguished Research Fellow, Orfalea Center of Global Studies,\u00a0UCSB,\u00a0author, co-author or editor of 60 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.\u00a0In 2008, the\u00a0United Nations Human Rights Council<\/a>\u00a0(UNHRC) appointed Falk to two three-year terms as a\u00a0United Nations Special Rapporteur <\/a>on \u201cthe situation of human rights in the\u00a0Palestinian territories<\/a> occupied since 1967.\u201d Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and associated with the local campus of the University of California, and for several years chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is\u00a0<\/em>On Nuclear Weapons, Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament\u00a0(2019). <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 richardfalk.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

31 Dec 2019 – At this age, having exhausted prose options, I indulge myself during holidays by sharing poems that seek also your indulgence. I searched 2019 for some glimmers of good news, and felt stymied. Of course here, there, everywhere there were glorious private exceptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-150999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}