Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.
Michael Simms: Sunstar
More
The mist that covers our mountain
Evaporates and becomes a feeling
That lasts all morning. You lift the spoon
From the sauce and feel the texture
Of the aroma. I love the way
You say silly things pretending
To be serious, the way you lift
The spoon almost touching your lips.
Steam rises from the pot.
Mist rises from the mountain.
All things rise, merge, divide
And merge again. We’re old
And I want more of what we have.
Nothing different, just more.
Not forever. Just a few more years.
It’s taken so long to arrive
—
Sunstar
After churning all night
I wake to see the sunstar
In the window, its perfect
Blossoms full of light.
I smell coffee and hear you
Moving room to room.
In two weeks, we’ll transplant
Our sunstar to the front bed
Between the extravagant
Dragon flower and the delicate
Hyacinth which Homer says
Sprang from the blood of a boy
Killed by Zephyr, god of wind.
We’ll root the flower well.
White threads of mycelia
Will embrace the tendrils,
Welcoming and nourishing
As we gradually inhabit
Our lives, every morning
Fiercely in love with light
~~~~~
Copyright 2025 Michael Simms. Published in Love is For All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging edited by James Crews and Brad Peacock (Storey Publishing, an imprint of The Hachette Group, 2025).
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Michael Simms is the founding editor of Vox Populi. His latest novels comprise the YA fantasy The Talon Trilogy (Madville, 2023, 2024, 2025), and his latest collection of poems is Jubal Rising (Ragged Sky, 2025).
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Cooking, smells, music (sometimes in the words said aloud), nature, love, vulnerability, questioning, and courage mark your poems, Michael. Love this too. Right on, my bruvah!
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Thank you so much, Desne!
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Oh Michael, the beauty of the moment, the transitoriness of what we have. What beautiful love poems and what an upper to read.
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Thank you, Mandy. I admire you so much. Your praise is like honey to me.
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I needed these love poems today — and the photo made me smile, too! Thank you, Michael!
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Thanks, Meg!
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Beautiful poems for all of us, Mike–I love the photo too.
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Thanks, Susan!
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Beautiful poems for all of us, Mike–I love the photo too.
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Thanks, Susan!
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Love these beauties, Michael. So much love and wonder…
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Thanks, Michelle. When I was young, I got lucky and met Eva.
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I love these two poems so much. Love.
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Thank you, Lisa!
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Oh dear man, it is not easy to make a truly satisfying poem saturated with contentment, and yet here you do it. Twice.
Wow. I love both of these. Thank you.
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Thank you, Rosemerry. Living with Eva, writing poems, especially love poems, comes easily.
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I really was taken by these two, especially “More”, and how one’s life has to be well-made to make such well-made poems. Such depth of feeling–to use a word that once meant something, then everything and got lost or left behind, these are “authentic.” For me, the highest of compliments.
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Bob, this praise means so much to me, coming from you, the most authentic of poets. Thank you.
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Beautiful. I love “More.”
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Thank you, Carine. I’ve recently been reading your work and I’m taken by the beautiful music of your poems and their resonance with history and culture.
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Thank you, Michael, for your generous comments on my work. You have given poets and writers a space to experience history, culture, politics in another dimension.
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Thank you, Michael, for your generous comments on my work. You have given poets and writers a space to experience history, culture, politics in another dimension.
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Thank you, Carine.
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Michael, thank you as always for your beautiful poems that lift us to light revealing the power of love.
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Thank you, Perie.
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Thank you for the gift of your beautiful poems. Thank you for all you do in service to the art of poetry and the pursuit of living a more humane life.
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Thanks, Donna!
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What blessings those two poems, Michael! And how I have been in that place of quiet, contemplative & peaceful gratitudes.
And how true it is that
“All things rise, merge, divide
And merge again. “
As do all of our poems in Vox Populi, as if we were this large choir — our voices rising, merging thanks to you, Michael.
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Thank you so much, Laure-Anne. You are the lead soprano in our choir.
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Love is the texture of aroma. So beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks, John.
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Thanks, John!
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These are beautiful and remind me there is good in the world and in many of us. I too want “more,” just a bit. Thank you, Michael.
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Thanks, Mary!
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oh the depth of old love. So rare. So beautiful.
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Yes it is.
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Two love poems in that anthology, Michael? But of course– one for each other, and one for the life you’ve built together.
More, please…
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Thanks, Louise. Yes, two loves.
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I love the devotion behind these two poems. It’s a rare gift to love at this deep level! As for craft, I love how easily you bring in the myth and then transit to “we’ll root the flower well.” So very effortless and delicate.
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Thanks, Deborah.
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Thanks for these two poems that offer us your “mutual magic.” I embrace the spirit in the love you’ve discovered and built upon. Your sharing Is the sunstar on dark days like these. ( I too have had rich moments to make a “lucky life.”)
Lucky life. Oh lucky life.
Oh lucky lucky life. Lucky life. – Gerald Stern.
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Lucky life.
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“it’s taken so long to arrive.”
I find myself so grateful to have, at last, met someone who can be with me in the kind of love that you describe with your beloved. It is nothing short of miraculous and holy. Thank you for sharing your intimate moments ❤
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Congratulations, Moudi.
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What beautiful and tender love poems these are. Thank you for adding their light to the world.
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Thanks, Mike.
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Oh these poems spoke to me. Especially the last two lines in More: Not forever, just a few more years. It’s taken so long to arrive. A perfect poem of love.
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Thanks, Valerie!
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Beautiful! Period. The experience you’ve created will stay with me. Especially valuable in this crazy world we’re in, Thanks you, Michael.
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Thank you!
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yes, always, to love and to these poems…
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Thank you, Hayden.
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Three Cheers for what sustains us, and thanks for carrying us line to line, bringing us more with the next, then the next, then the next. Thanks Michael.
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Thanks so much!
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Thank you for your daily attention to these posts, Emily, and the private notes you send to me about them, as well as your public posts. You are an important voice for me.
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With so much to be sad about, these love poems soften my heart.
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Thank you, Stella Sue.
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Oh, such lovely love poems! I’m raising my coffee mug to you, Michael. Here’s to you both, Michael and Eva! Wishing you more of what you have.
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Thanks, Christine. As you probably know, love poems are kind of out of fashion now, so I was thrilled to have my poems included in James and Brad’s lovely anthology.
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Dear Gerry. Dear dear Gerry. Dear one…
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The above was in answer to Jim — but stumbled a tad out of order!
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No problem, Laure-Anne.
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Thank you for starting my day with tenderness and beauty. Such a gift.
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Thank you, Julie. In such an evil time as ours, it’s necessary to search out the light.
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High time for poetry from the one who runs this show! I covered your little Anthology , things everyday, things momentous and celestial. “We’re old, and I want more of what we have—nothing different, just more. Not forever, just a few more years.”
Dandelions and Conjunctions in light and flesh, the lemon hanging by its wound, spoons and lips, beautiful, beautiful stuff Captain! I’m aboard—take us where we’re meant to go!
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Thank you, maestro.
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