[Prefatory Note: Theodor Adorno’s unforgettable remark of 1983 continues
to challenge and even haunt: “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”
When I first encountered such a startling sentiment II was grateful to be reminded
that to engage normally involves turning a blind eye toward acute and massive
suffering, at least briefly. Today there are many horrors inflicted on innocent decent people
whether on the southern border of the United States, Rakhine State in
Myanmar, Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Honduras, among the poor and strife-ridden everywhere.
Yet to be on the side of justice is at. one with embracing the glories of life, and to live well is
to dream poetically. My short poems are intended as a gesture of celebration,
a welcoming of Spring in dark times, indefensible yet indispensable. Maybe also somewhat
self-indulgent, an undeserved respite from grief and grievances.]
3 Poems at Springtime
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On My 88thBirthday: A Reflection
To be almost 90
And happy
With good health
Feels almost criminal
Amid Satanic happenings
Raising Images too dark
To seem real
Children in Gaza
Are shot and killed
Friday after Friday
By designated assassins
Khashoggi’s murder
An unspeakable crime
Yet only a PR problem
For hard men of power
Events this dark
And this numerous
Form storm clouds
Will despair be our fate?
Is this truly our world?
Are we even meant to survive?
My hope– to live
Long enough to shout
An everlasting ‘No’
And may so affirming
Become my last word
Become my testament
Of hope for all that lives
Richard Falk
Berlin
November 13, 2018
Rev. April 20, 2019
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In Search of Equivalence
A daisy is like a pigeon
A pigeon seems an ant
Yet an ant is far from daisy
And you my love are neither
An orchid is like my cat
A cat is a household god
Worship only what you love
Yet avoiding hate of all else
Ask a single question
Are equals ever equal
Yeats had an answer
Whatever is born begotten dies
IV/14/2019
Santa Barbara
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What You See Is Not What You Get
graffiti and garbage
walls alive
pavements littered
whether Delhi or Rome
yet fabulous
feasting the eye
a delirium of the senses
heartbreak torment
disturbs the mind
always thankful for vividness
overcoming pity
we live for life
IV/14/2019
Santa Barbara
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Beautiful!!!
Sent from my iPhone
>
wise poems. Thank you.
I also think of these 1st lines about April:
T.S. Eliot April is the cruelest month….
Chaucer Whan that Aprile with his showres soote (When April with his sweet showers) —
….much has changed historically (plus ca change….n’est pas la meme chose….)
HiJudith:
Yes, I know those poetic beckonings to April, and cruel sweetness may
be the best way to weave these opposite illuminations together in a single fabric of awareness.
Warm greetings,
Richard
NOT to write poetry in the midst of ongoing horror is barbaric. We need it like water.
Hi Paul:
a shared vision..
Richard
Richard,
Thanks for posting this side of you that most of your detractors (Zionist trolls) will never understand. We who know you are much in accord. Please continue sharing such with us as your muse moves you.
Greetings from sunny Geneva
Gene, et al.
Dear Richard,what a lesson hope you give to this world on the verge of abyss and barbarism. thanks .I will see in Italy what the european elections result brings us on the verge of fascism in Italy.I hope you come in Rome where I will stay until October.warmest greetings patricia >
Thanks, Patricia, for those affirming words. We will be in Rome in early June and again during September. Let’s do our best to meet. Warmest greetings.
Dear Professor Falk,
Your ingrained compassion for the less fortunate clearly informs a special kind of Muse…but Yeats is often too dark: “…sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal..”? I prefer my dear (incidentally Jewish) colleague Louise, who encourages me greatly by saying “You’re not a dirty old man – you’re a sexy senior citizen!”
Nice poetry!