{"id":280496,"date":"2024-11-18T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=280496"},"modified":"2024-11-16T07:21:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T07:21:53","slug":"my-94th-birthday-amid-rubble-and-precious-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/my-94th-birthday-amid-rubble-and-precious-life\/","title":{"rendered":"My 94th Birthday amid Rubble and Precious Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

My poem on navigating the narrowing channel between personal happiness and public gloom.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I. Demons Prowling<\/strong><\/p>\n

For these last years I felt
\nIt was strange to be still alive
\nWhen so many around me were dead
\nStranger still to stay young within
\nTo receive and give love
\nWhile the planet burns
\nAnd untamed demons prowl
\nPlunging the world into total darkness
\nIt seems even
\nThe night sky shares the gloom of earth
\nEven the stars retreat as if on strike
\nAgainst demon stalkers of the night
\nProwling about their mansions of deceit
\nTrampling upon their manicured gardens
\nHatefully howling in the darkness
\nUntil the only safe comfort zones
\nWere hidden distant in\u00a0 the galaxy<\/p>\n

II. Precious Living<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet despite the carnage
\nRoses bloom guarded by thorns
\nGardenias retain their addictive aroma
\nA glorious bestowal of nature\u2019s blessings
\nAnd yet we complain that it is not enough
\nIndulging our pure greed always wanting more
\nYet our private and inner life eludes the grasp
\nOf beasts of prey and demons of the night
\nThe joys of loving and being loved never age
\nRather grow old together gathering wisdom
\nYear by year accepting and affirming what remains
\nWhat is lost as long as your love and presence
\nResists abandonment, partners to the end
\nAs long as the radiance of love infuses our lives
\nAs long as the lives and legacies of our children
\nAs long as this sturdy light of my life stays bright
\nBringing tears of delight of love\u2019s deepest roots
\nThrough time and emotional memories
\nGood and bad playful ironic serious
\nThat long we know we are still alive
\nTo what always matters most up close<\/p>\n

III. Jackal Dominion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Always darkness and light merge
\nAt dawn and dusk never diverge
\nAlmost as certain as death itself
\nBirds and cats know more than we
\nAbout the movements of earth and sky
\nThose blessed companions, therapists
\nOf the soul, minions of the heart
\nUntil now spared from vengeful jackals
\nIn control now our public destiny
\nEach day the shrouded bodies of babies
\nSubverts our sacred longing for serenity
\nWith shrieks of horror by those left alive
\nWhile those others the jackals
\nDare speak to us with gruesome clarity
\nOf unabashed evil means and ends
\nYet they are there <\/strong>and we are here<\/strong>
\nFor us living fearfully at a distance
\nNothing worse is yet happening to me
\nThan nightly disturbances of sleep
\nBut tomorrow a servant of the jackals
\nMay knock hard on our door bringing
\nThe news that that there is no more there<\/p>\n

IV. Cry Freedom!<\/strong><\/p>\n

When slaves break their chains
\nAnd patriots of the earth become
\nWarriors gardeners poets engaging
\nIn a fight worth winning for the sake
\nOf those we love and learn from
\nSo long as the trusted soul breathes its light
\nWhile the body is busy with the work of dying
\nLife remains a precious gift of the god.<\/p>\n

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

Santa Barbara, California<\/em><\/p>\n

November 13, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Prof. Richard Falk is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 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. Between 2008 and 2014, Falk served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine. His book,\u00a0<\/em>(Re)Imagining Humane Global Governance\u00a0(2014), proposes a value-oriented assessment of world order and future trends. His most recent books are\u00a0<\/em>Power Shift\u00a0(2016);\u00a0<\/em>Revisiting the Vietnam War\u00a0(2017);\u00a0<\/em>On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament\u00a0(2019); and\u00a0<\/em>On Public Imagination: A Political & Ethical Imperative, ed. with Victor Faessel & Michael Curtin (2019).\u00a0He\u00a0is the author or coauthor of other books, including\u00a0<\/em>Religion and Humane Global Governance\u00a0(2001),\u00a0<\/em>Explorations at the Edge of Time\u00a0(1993),\u00a0<\/em>Revolutionaries and Functionaries\u00a0(1988),\u00a0<\/em>The Promise of World Order\u00a0(1988),\u00a0<\/em>Indefensible Weapons (with Robert Jay Lifton, 1983),\u00a0<\/em>A Study of Future Worlds\u00a0(1975), and\u00a0<\/em>This Endangered Planet\u00a0(1972).\u00a0His memoir,\u00a0<\/em>Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim\u00a0was published in March 2021 and received an award from Global Policy Institute at Loyala Marymount University as \u2018the best book of 2021.<\/strong>\u2019 He has been nominated frequently for the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

My poem on navigating the narrowing channel between personal happiness and public gloom. November 13, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":241678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868,944],"class_list":["post-280496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry","tag-richard-falk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280496","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=280496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280499,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280496\/revisions\/280499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}