{"id":84689,"date":"2016-12-26T12:09:42","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T12:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84689"},"modified":"2016-12-27T10:23:17","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T10:23:17","slug":"realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/12\/realities\/","title":{"rendered":"Realities"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this poem as a holiday season’s gift to myself.\u00a0 Xmas Day, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

I can’t be taken down.
\nFor my feet have always been firmly on the ground.<\/p>\n

My career can’t be destroyed.
\nFor I have never pursued one.<\/p>\n

My image can’t be tarnished.
\nFor it has never been manufactured.<\/p>\n

I am unafraid to fall.
\nFor I have never attempted to climb.<\/p>\n

I can’t be ostracised.
\nFor I seek no external acceptance.<\/p>\n

I am not given into applauses or flattery. .
\nFor I know I am always less than the person that is being lauded or flattered.<\/p>\n

I don’t hold on to anything, applauses or condemnations, achievements
\nor failures.<\/p>\n

Nothing belongs to me.
\nAnd I am nothing beyond my present deeds.
\nFor Nothingness reigns supreme inside.<\/p>\n

I have no soul to corrupt;
\nnor is there a “core” to hold up as “incorruptible”.<\/p>\n

I am only a stream of deeds and thoughts held together by memory.
\nNothing lasts.
\nNot even that memory.<\/p>\n

No regrets nor jubilations.<\/p>\n

I too will pass
\nlike another dust on this earth.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Maung Zarni is a Burmese activist blogger, Associate Fellow at the University of Malaya, a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a>, founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School of Economics, and<\/em> a nonresident scholar with the Sleuk Rith Institute in Cambodia. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press.<\/em> He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can’t be taken down.
\nFor my feet have always been firmly on the ground.<\/p>\n

My career can’t be destroyed.
\nFor I have never pursued one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84689","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=84689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}