Most Popular Vox Populi Posts for 2021

At the end of each year, I enjoy compiling a list of the Vox Vopuli posts which attracted the most viewers. This year, for the first time, I’m also noting the single most popular post in each category since VP was founded in April, 2014. If you see an author or title that looks interesting, I hope you’ll visit (or re-visit) the post. Thank you for being part of our community! — Michael Simms, editor

Most Popular Vox Populi Political Articles in 2021:

Abby Zimet: Slipping Free of the Shame To Say His Name, Now More Than Ever

Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, & Max Wilbert: Bright Green Lies

Dan Brook: The Cost of Meat

Baron Wormser: Notes from the Time of the Leader

D.W. Fenza: Democracy & the Corruptible Soul of Higher Education

Most popular Vox Populi Political Article of all time (2014-2021):

Noam Chomsky: The Death of the American University

— 

Most popular Health Articles in 2021:

Andrew Reginald Hairston: Husky Boy

William Torphy and Ted Torphy: Lessons from the Pandemic

William Petri, M.D.: How effective is the first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine?

Rachel Hadas: Humble Herb is Rival to Prozac

Tony Magistrale: When Viruses Collide: Covid-19 Meets Stephen King’s The Stand

Most popular Health Article of all time (2014-2021:

Joshua Dubois: What the President secretly did at Sandy Hook Elementary School

 —

Most Popular Poems in 2021:

Baron Wormser: Once

Martha Silano: Nothing I Did

Molly Fisk: How to Stop

Jane Varley: The Language of Prayer

Rachel Hadas: Shouldering

Most Popular Poem 2014-2021:

Danusha Laméris: Small Kindnesses

—

Most Popular Personal Essays in 2021:

Joe Kadi: Musings about a Gender Transition

Jason Irwin: Sickness Will Surely Take the Mind

Valerie Bacharach: Elegy for Nathan

Haya El-Refai: Laya’s first Eid

Sharon Fagan McDermott: Three Ways of Looking at Beauty

Most Popular Personal Essay 2014-2021:

Mary Oliver: The Artist’s Task

—

Film, Art, Humor in 2021

Video: Negative Space

Kate Cheney Chappell: Earth Matrix

Wesley Wildman: News from Trump Country

Video: Louie Schwartzberg | Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.

Video: The Nazi Officer’s Wife

Most Popular Film, Art, Humor Post 2014-2021:

Video: Frida Kahlo (rare footage)

—

Most popular 2021 Posts by Michael Simms

Michael Simms: Dust

Michael Simms: The Dark

Federico García Lorca: New York (Office and Denunciation) (translation)

Michael Simms: The Door

Video: Michael Simms reads five poems of joy and acceptance

Most popular Post by Michael Simms 2014-2021:

Michael Simms: On the Spectrum with Garrison Keillor

In addition to visiting the posts above, I highly recommend taking a look at the poetry of Christopher Bursk, whose final book With Aeneas in a Time of Plague was released by Ragged Sky Press shortly after his death in June, 2021. I find Chris’s poems elegant, musical and profound.

****A big thank you to all the poets, writers, artists, and filmmakers who contributed work to Vox Populi over the last eight years. And thank you, especially, to the subscribers around the world (30% of our 12,000 subscribers live outside the United States) who keep this enterprise alive simply by reading, clicking, commenting, and sharing. Happy New Year to all!