Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.

Sean Sexton: Herculaneum (audio and painting email to Robert Cording)

I’m reading Basho’s “Backroads to the North Country,” on my trip, an old, crumbling Penguin classics series that includes four separate journeys and a great intro. He conveys at one point how grateful he is to be on the road, Mt Fuji far away back home in Edo, so he needn’t ponder it in his life for awhile.

August 10, 2025 · 24 Comments

Betsy Sholl: Monet’s Garden 

When he was painting his lilies,
when he was refusing evacuation
despite the war being close enough
to hear from his garden,
was Monet offering the world lilies,
saying there are lilies as well as guns?

August 8, 2025 · 26 Comments

Derrick Z. Jackson: Administration Cuts Will Leave No Refuge for Wildlife

Smyrna, Delaware—Bald eagles descended to pose on the banks and boulders on the mudflats. Shorebirds bobbed in shallow pools. Great blue herons, great egrets, and snowy egrets snapped up fish … Continue reading

July 21, 2025 · 8 Comments

Video: Dear Philadelphia

With the help of their family, friends, and faith, three fathers unravel the incomparable partnership of forgiveness and community in North Philadelphia.

July 19, 2025 · Leave a comment

Mike Schneider: Three Hats

When Oddjob flings his bowler
in Goldfinger, it leaps from his hand
& sails like a frisbee across a meadow
& hovers, or seems to, as in a dream

July 15, 2025 · 17 Comments

Video: A Swim Lesson

An ode to an everyday hero: Bill Marsh, a swim teacher who helps children manage their fears and discover their own power when submerged in an overwhelming unknown. 

July 12, 2025 · 2 Comments

Michael Simms: All Time Most Popular Posts in Vox Populi (2014-2025)

Vox Populi was founded on April 1, 2014 when Nisha Gupta and I met for coffee and decided to start a website to support the anti-fracking activists in Western Pennsylvania.

July 12, 2025 · 35 Comments

Video: It Turns Blue

Pari covers up domestic violence when her brother beats up his 3 year old daughter.

July 5, 2025 · 1 Comment

Video: She Sells Seashells

Archival footage meets contemporary black and white super 8, in a curious exploration of the female cockle gatherers of South Wales and the surprising secrets shellfish and seaweed hold for our oceans’ health.

June 29, 2025 · 5 Comments

Ma Yongbo: Swimmer in the Ocean

On a painting by Deborah Bogen

June 29, 2025 · 7 Comments

Video: The F-Word

A dad struggles to give an age-appropriate explanation of the expletive.

June 28, 2025 · 8 Comments

Patrice Taddonio: 10 Documentaries on the Science, Politics and Impact of Our Changing Climate

From early research into climate change by fossil fuel companies, to the organizations that fought the scientific establishment to shift the climate conversation in the U.S., to the role of climate change in deadly American wildfires.

June 20, 2025 · 6 Comments

Video: Goodnight, Moon

Stephen Gailule wants closure. After hijacking his father’s ashes, he makes a suburban pilgrimage, trespassing onto the grounds of his childhood home. Things change when the new tenant takes a … Continue reading

June 15, 2025 · Leave a comment

Video: Margie Soudek’s Salt and Pepper Shakers

Using special FX, the director Meredith Moore surrounds her grandmother with explosions, rainbows, and sparkling lights as she shares her extensive collection of salt and pepper shakers.

June 14, 2025 · 4 Comments

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