[Prefatory Note: At this age, having exhausted prose options, I indulge myself during holidays, by sharing poems that seek also your indulgence. I searched 2019 forsome glimmers of good news, and felt stymied. Of course, here, there, everywhere there were glorious private exceptions, yet hovering over the public marketplaces ofthe 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 reject despair, and pledge to fight for what I believe in 2020 with the conviction that it can happen, and of course should happen.]
Forgetting 2019
asphalt rain
darkens green fields
eco-extinction
flares Amazon skies
fake leaders slithering
toward real dangers
hither and yon
seek safe havens
gated nations
hiding from truth
screaming ‘no’
migrants fleeing despair
pleading ‘please’
hiding from evils
Aung San Suu Kyi
defending genocide
this fallen Nobelist
broadcasting abroad
her deadly message
two centuries ago
Walt Whitman
arrived in our midst
singing aloud
bewilderingly
of America’s future
later lost to predators
seizing their loot
robbing the land
turning dreams
to wilting flowers
our grief becomes
a betrayed destiny
tainted at birth
natives driven
off their sacred land
of holy innocence
the trusted voice
of Toni Morrison
is gone not lost
if we listen
if we listen
if we listen
all not yet all
lost futureless
nested eggs contain
our only hope
of what may yet come
of what to renounce
let’s start with gold
then learn not to hate
keep love joy truth
if we listen
if we listen
if we listen
Richard Falk
Santa Barbara, CA
December 31, 2019
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Dear Richard,
Yes, so it is . . .
May in this world, illness, poverty,
war, and evil intent be cut off from
their roots, and cease for ever.
May this black epoque disappear.
– Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th
Gyalwa Karmapa Rinpoche,
(1924-1981)
And I add: May I make this possible!
Warm regards,
Björn Lindgren
—
Well, another accomplishment from someone well accomplished in another work. If we didn’t know it we know it now, that all of your humane writings were grounded in a human caring. Happy New Year. Please don’t stop writing now. My best,
Thank you for the poem, Richard. I didn’t realize you write poetry as well. A pleasant surprise.
Happy New Year,
David
>
Uh, actually, Uncle Walt arrived 2 centuries ago… never left
Ho embarrassing! Thanks for noticing,
Ho embarrassing! Thanks for noticing,
I love this poem!
Hope you are fine, Claudia, and that those whom you love will flourish
in 2020! Warmest greetings, Richard
Dear Professor Falk,
At least WWI victims have a monument and a prayer-remembrence place in Magdeburger cathedral – now days that depicted exhaustion of humanity is almost 100 times multiplied, not in wood – but in living humans. The cathedral seems to be to be a holy place. If only roaring of death could just stop.
Azusa street abuse of Church Order – was a real bitch to the contemporarily Un-Church (and her sects and cults history, and now for a more then 100 years ).
Evangelical sect and cults can not help themselves. I hope that Evangelical Church in Germany can give them some hope to help themeless. If that takes place – I can see better and real-transending (not fake) of future (for today) on global stage.
As Dark as it is – its not as bad – only 1 half of the world population is not at war/mass shootings? It will be very bad when 1/4 and lover gets to be not at war/mass shootings?
Let us believe that world-moranity – or as you say “fake leaders slithering” wake up rooted in hell, and fouling flesh. It happened to Nazis and all others for more ago then the 50 years now. Things that decay are not even worthwhile uprooting. School of Frankfurt had a pretty good idea about that.
K.F.
Best wishes for 2020 and cordial regards
“Season´s Greetings and a good 2020!”: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2019/12/23/seasons-greetings-and-a-good-2020-schoene-feiertage-und-ein-gutes-2020/
Thanks for your wise words Richard and for all the wonderful work you do. ⭐️ Happy new year. Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise (in Irish)
As always I admire Richard’s courage and honesty in telling it like it is, while the decade turns. I feel rather like he does, overall, but I still draw some comfort from the political outcomes in Argentina and Mexico, the demonstrations in Latin America, the voice of Pope Francis, and the emergence of the Progressive Democrats in the USA (with the possibility of an AOC candidacy in 2024 even if the religious-nationalist Right has a second term in 2020).