Vox Populi
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Michael Simms: Heart of Glass
In Herzog’s great visual opera The hero stands on a cliff Above a valley where a river Of molten glass carries Light to the sea And everyone who watches The film thinks yes This is how it is the heart Is broken then melted And the feelings flow like Molten glass I thought My wife having recently Left me every touch Was like sandpaper On my raw skin Because I had been By everyone’s account A total ass never mind Cassandra let bygones be The beginning of new Bygones and did I mention I was a total ass in The film the hero is A seer who has been Called down from the hills And he says the factory Producing the ruby red Glass will burn down And with it the secret To producing the glass And the Baron there’s Always a baron in fairy Tales isn’t there the Baron Believes the glass Has magical properties and The secret is lost and The Baron and the whole Damn town descend Into madness which Reminded me of My own madness after She left I sat on The kitchen floor all Night drinking and the Next morning I got up Went outside walked Through what must have Been a beautiful April Day with birdsong and Light I didn’t see Coming down Through the leaves
Copyright 2020 Michael Simms. From American Ash by Michael Simms (Ragged Sky, 2020).
Michael Simms is the founding editor of Vox Populi.
Vox Populi 
What a poem!
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Thank you, Bertha! It’s an important poem to me.
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Wow, a very heartfelt, well-crafted poem. I will definitely buy your book. I have seen most of Herzog’s films but I must have missed this one . . .Can you give the name of it?
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Thanks, Deborah. The film is called Heart of Glass. It’s one of Herzog’s early ones I saw in the late 1970s.
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Great. Amazon prime has it!
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Thank you, Deborah!
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