Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.
Michael Simms: Tootling Along
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for being part of Vox Populi. This morning, we feature two poems by the internationally acclaimed poet, eurythmy performer and filmmaker Gail Langstroth. Recently, we’ve had evocative poems by Barbara Hamby, Gary Fincke and Sarojini Naidu; provocative essays by Baron Wormser, Emily Frazier, Pablo Bose and Lara-Nour Walton; as well as a video of Lucille Clifton reciting her iconic poem “won’t you celebrate with me” and a short selection of heart-wrenching poems by Marilyn Monroe. Tomorrow, we’ll offer a poem by Doug Anderson and on Monday, one by Naomi Shihab Nye.
It’s a pleasure to share the work of these brilliant writers and poets with you. Please browse our archives which have over 7,000 posts going back nine years.
As a change of pace, I hope you don’t mind my sharing links to some of my own recent publications even though you may have seen some of this information on social media.
1. Strange Meadowlark, my fourth full-length collection of poems, was released today by Ragged Sky Press, edited by the brilliant Ellen Foos. Click here to order a copy. And click here to read Angele Ellis’s perceptive review published in Cultural Daily.
2. My fantasy novel, The Green Mage, Volume One of The Talon Trilogy, was released by Madville in June of this year. Volume Two, Windkeep, is scheduled for release in February 2024. I love working with Kimberly Davis, Madville’s Editor in Chief, and her crack team of editors and designers.
3. The World as Sound, a new poem of mine not included in Strange Meadowlark, is published as text and audio in the new September issue of Plume which went live today. I’m grateful to Daniel Lawless, the editor in chief, for selecting my poem and including my artist’s statement:
Because of repeated traumas when I was a small child, I didn’t learn to speak until I was five. Until then, the world was a blur of undifferentiated sensations. Synesthesia can be a gift, such as Richard Feynman’s experience of Bessel functions as chromatic sequences, or it can be an ideal, such as Baudelaire’s desire to transcend fixed notions of the world, but in trauma-induced muteness as I was experiencing, the basic understanding of the world is in flux. In my case, the world became music. A shoe was a song and the song was a color. Eventually, with the help of a speech therapist, I learned to speak, but I’ve never lost the tendency to experience everything I feel and see and think as tone and rhythm.
4. I’m grateful to David Juda for including 22 of my poems in text and audio in Voetica, his fabulous archive of poetry. If you’re not familiar with Voetica, please do browse through the wonderful collection which includes actors performing the work of canonical poets such as Dickinson, Roethke and Plath, as well as many contemporary poets such as Ellen Bass and T.R. Hummer reading their own poems. Click here to go to Voetica’s homepage which, like Vox Populi, is free.
5. And finally, I want to thank James Crews for including my poem “Sometimes I Wake Early” in his newest anthology The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal beside so many poets I admire, such as Ross Gay, Ada Limón, Tony Hoagland, Li-Young Lee, Toi Derricotte, Wendell Berry, Joseph Bruchac, Danusha Laméris and Jane Hirshfield. As the jacket copy accurately promises: “These poems root us in the moment, inviting rest, renewal, and peace.”
One of my favorite poems in James’s anthology is “November Praise” by Michael Joshua Stewart which includes lines which could have been written about my experience of growing up:
To come this close to nostalgia,
but go no further, leaving behind
the boy who wore loneliness
like boots too big for his feet.
As the brightness of summer simmers down, and autumn with its darker joys rises, I wish you a happy and healthy season. Vox Populi will continue bringing you a daily offering of beautiful poems and stimulating essays, as well as an occasional display of humor, art and film. Having spent the first half of my life feeling desperately alone, I can’t tell you how spectacular it feels to have a family and to be part of a large community of poets, artists and thinkers.
Thank you for all you do, all you are.
Your faithful editor,
Mike
(Michael Simms)
.
top image: Mike, Eva and their kelpie Josie at home (photo by Kate Daniels)
Discover more from Vox Populi
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thank you for everything, thank you very much, with love.
LikeLike
I love you, Marina, on the other side of the far seas.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Michael, for everything. If you’re a beer drinker, raise an Iron City in a collective toast to you, Vox Populi, and Pittsburg. It’s been decades since I tasted one.
LikeLike
Thanks, Matthew. I’ll raise a glass of fizz water with you. It’s been 38 years since I had a beer.
M.
>
LikeLike
That’s right. I forgot. But fizzy water will work. It’s the thought that propels the lifting of the vessel that’s important.
LikeLike
“My mother’s high heel was a slide
Her foot sang into.” Oh! 💙
Thank you for all YOU do, Michael—poet, editor, novelist, magnanimous human being!
LikeLike
And you, Lisa. Thank you for all you do.
>
LikeLike
Just read your moving poem, “The World as Sound.” I look forward to ordering one of your books! I enjoy following Vox Populi.
LikeLike
Thanks, Ellen!
>
LikeLike
“The World as Sound” is a moving poem. I will order one of your books soon! I enjoy following Vox Populi.
LikeLike
Thank you, Ellen. I appreciate your support. — Mike
>
LikeLike
Ellen, I love your poem “Wild Hive” and your discussion of how you came to write it. Thank you!
>
LikeLike
Look forward to reading your new book of poetry!
LikeLike
Leo, I’ve really loved your presence on these pages. Thank you!
>
LikeLike
Will order new book. Appreciate waking up to Vox Populi each morning.
LikeLike
You are wonderful, Barbara!
>
LikeLike
Wonderful review by Angele Ellis. Such evocative and revealing poems that stir the heart. Thanks for this and all you do, Michael Simms.
LikeLike
And you as well, Mel. Thank you.
>
LikeLike
So appreciate Vox Populi Sphere and the wide ranging net you cast to bring us such interesting (for me) early morning reading. (well, maybe not so early.)
LikeLike
Thank you, Emily, I admire the work you do so much, and I appreciate your support of mine.
>
LikeLike
Thanks so much for providing this service for all of us. I hope you and your work continue to thrive.
LikeLike
How generous of you, Robbi. Thank you!
LikeLike
Hi Michael, Just ordered it! Congrats!
Best,
George
Oh, that reminds me: some time ago I sent you a poem titledFederico Garcia Lorca, You Have Ruined My Life. At the timeyou said you’d like to run it. Is it still in the hopper? Just wondering.No problem if not—I sent it not as a submission anyway. Wantedto check before I sentit out anywhere!
LikeLike
Thanks, George. Your Lorca poem is still in the hopper. Sorry, it’s taken so long to run it.
M.
>
LikeLike
You are a good guy, Mike, and deserve every happiness.
LikeLike
Thank you, Ellen. I can’t express how grateful I am to you.
Warmly, M.
>
LikeLike