[Prefatory Note: my poem on navigating the narrowing channel
Between personal happiness and public gloom.]
My 94th Birthday amid rubble and precious life
1.Demons Prowling
For these last years I felt
It was strange to be still alive
When so many around me were dead
Stranger still to stay young within
To receive and give love
While the planet burns
And untamed demons prowl
Plunging the world into total darkness
It seems even
The night sky shares the gloom of earth
Even the stars retreat as if on strike
Against demon stalkers of the night
Prowling about their mansions of deceit
Trampling upon their manicured gardens
Hatefully howling in the darkness
Until the only safe comfort zones
Were hidden distant in the galaxy
II. Precious Living
Yet despite the carnage
Roses bloom guarded by thorns
Gardenias retain their addictive aroma
A glorious bestowal of nature’s blessings
And yet we complain that it is not enough
Indulging our pure greed always wanting more
Yet our private and inner life eludes the grasp
Of beasts of prey and demons of the night
The joys of loving and being loved never age
Rather grow old together gathering wisdom
Year by year accepting and affirming what remains
What is lost as long as your love and presence
Resists abandonment, partners to the end
As long as the radiance of love infuses our lives
As long as the lives and legacies of our children
As long as this sturdy light of my life stays bright
Bringing tears of delight of love’s deepest roots
Through time and emotional memories
Good and bad playful ironic serious
That long we know we are still alive
To what always matters most up close
III. Jackal Dominion
Always darkness and light merge
At dawn and dusk never diverge
Almost as certain as death itself
Birds and cats know more than we
About the movements of earth and sky
Those blessed companions, therapists
Of the soul, minions of the heart
Until now spared from vengeful jackals
In control now our public destiny
Each day the shrouded bodies of babies
Subverts our sacred longing for serenity
With shrieks of horror by those left alive
While those others the jackals
Dare speak to us with gruesome clarity
Of unabashed evil means and ends
Yet they are there and we are here
For us living fearfully at a distance
Nothing worse is yet happening to me
Than nightly disturbances of sleep
But tomorrow a servant of the jackals
May knock hard on our door bringing
The news that that there is no more there
IV. Cry Freedom!
When slaves break their chains
And patriots of the earth become
Warriors gardeners poets engaging
In a fight worth winning for the sake
Of those we love and learn from
So long as the trusted soul breathes its light
While the body is busy with the work of dying
Life remains a precious gift of the god
Richard Falk
Santa Barbara, California
November 13, 2024
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns on the Day. I wish you also for your healthy longer life sothat you may serve the mankind for more times.
On the eve of your happy birthday, I would like to quote a published article of mine on the theme of health and life:
To Be Young Is to Be Healthy Forever
HEALTH, 31 May 2021
Surya Nath Prasad – TRANSCEND Media Service
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/05/to-be-young-is-to-be-healthy-forever/
Sincerely,
Surya Nath Prasad
suryanathprasad@gmail.com
Wishing you many happy returns of the day, Bringing a ray of sanity and hope to brighten this dark world.
Dear Professor Falk, we wish you a happy birthday and are very glad that you are able to distinguish between good and evil. Your writings are an inspiration to all who cherish life on this planet. As for the poem’s, they are beautiful. Long may you run.
Sincerely.
Wow! 94 eh, congratulations Richard, I’m impressed.
I’m not sure if this made it:
Wow! 94 eh, congratulations Richard, I’m impressed.
You are an incredible human being and have lived a life of integrity and courage. You have always provided inspiration and hope. I met you once several years ago at UCLA. Happy Birthday and more to come!! Safiya
Happy Birthday, Professor Falk! 🎈🎂🎉🥳
I wish you many more ❤️
I ran across your work after seeing your name on the masthead of The Progressive Magazine in the 1980s, (Erwin liked heavyweights, independent minds).
Been reading your work in one capacity or another, and was so happy to read your column on the Internet, when it began.
Happy birthday.
Thank you for your work against fascism always.
Mike Leon
I wish my favorite patriot of the earth a happy new year, in whatever way you define happy.
Hey Richard Falk, who does not remember that we did a lot of corresponding decades ago — In regard to “the lives and legacies of our children,” mine let me do all the work on saving this world as they bolster me up to do it. Here’s what I got for my 90th birthday earlier this year: Ihttps://vimeo.com/1003393007
mesmerizing but tragically sad
Happy birthday and we love to have you for more years to come.
Dearest Professor Falk,
Your words, as always fill me with inspiration, passion, and knowledge. Thank you for being a part of my education, career, and dedication to justice.
Happy Birthday!
❤ Nicole
Nicole:
Such a lovely message!
When you have time tell me how you are doing and if I can help in any way.
Warmest greetings from Santa Barbara.
Hi Richard, Hoped to catch you in SB last week or maybe in April. I tried to connect over email about this and potential joint lecture on Genocide. I hope we can re-connect.
Hi Nicole: I will be in Morocco from April 1-8, then in SB. Sorry to miss
you. Hope you have good personal news. Let’s try to connect either this week
or after my return. Warm greetings, Richard
Happy Birthday Richard. It has been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with you two. John Ahern
John:
So good to hear from you, and hoping in this time of dark skies your
health and spirits are good. We juwt returned to SB from Turkey. We must
find time to meet. In the interim haooy holidays! Warm greetingw, Ridhq4e & Hilql
John:
So good to hear from you, and hoping in this time of dark skies your
health and spirits are good. We juwt returned to SB from Turkey. We must
find time to meet. In the interim haooy holidays! Warm greetingw, Ridhq4e & Hilql
Richard,
Not sure whether you remember me, but our paths crossed during the early 1990s–probably through Yanique Joseph, with whom I joined forces in the “green” movement. How long ago that seems–especially in light of your poem and its message(s).
Rather than comment on it in its entirety, I feel the most important word in it is “yet,” meaning “despite and still.” Infused with love–and, yes, death–your poem will stay with me in these dark times, allowing me to glimpse the light peeking around the edges.
How amazing, too, that there’s so much life in you at 94. I’m 76, and in some ways I’m still in the thick of things–still working (as a freelance health/medical writer), still seeing (and treasuring) my friends (although I fully realize that some, maybe many, of us will die in the next decade), still working on various types of projects, and still rejoicing in my son (rejoice includes worry and concern–heh heh!). But parts of me are busy dying–one of the many memorable phrases/messages in your poem.
Additionally, I have a Substack newsletter titled “What’s Age Got to Do With It?” Here’s a link, just in case you’d like to take a look at it: margaretwcrane.substack.com With your permission, I’d like to write about you in a future post. The very near future! And when I do, I’d like to send it to you. Could you send me your email address?
Much gratitude and deep appreciation,
Peggy Crane
Margaret W. Crane Freelance Health/Science Writer 212-316-5036 (landline) 646-262-6060 (mobile) Portfolio: https://www.clippings.me/pegcrane LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/healthsciencecontentwriter/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/healthsciencecontentwriter/ Substack: “What’s Age Got to Do With It?” margaretwcrane.substack.com