Jose Padua: Reflections on a Lesson that Would Soon Be Made More Clear to Me by Gil Scott-Heron
In 1971 I’m
thirteen years old
watching a big
Vietnam war protest
on television
Michael Simms: All-time Most Popular Posts in Vox Populi
My favorite comment about Vox Populi comes from contributor Doug Anderson who said, “Vox Populi is basically a personal blog that seems to have swallowed a small planet.”
Doug Anderson: The Dictator
He built a wall around himself and demanded
that his image be painted on the inside of the wall
looking back so he could imagine the shouts
on the outside were cheers for him
Video: Wavy Gravy & Ace of Cups | “Basic Human Needs”
And wouldn’t it be neat if the people that you meet had shoes upon their feet
And something to eat
And wouldn’t it be fine, now if all of human kind had shelter
Robert Wrigley: The Consciousness of Everything
That time’s lost now, when a stone could hurt,
when a feather missed its wing,
when sky kissed clouds and grass kissed dirt
and nothing thought itself just a thing.
Michael Simms: Ten things I should have figured out before now
Love is complicated. Courtesy is simple. Start with courtesy.
Video: Liberal Redneck | Progress in Rural America
There’s votes to be had, ya’ll.
Elinor Wylie: Castilian
He washed his face in water cold,
His hands in turpentine;
He squeezed out colour like coins of gold
And colour like drops of wine.
David Huddle: Parable of My Family’s Artistic Impulses
My father, affectionately known
by his sons as Doodles, took up painting-by-the-numbers.
His vision of blue jays hung over the toilet to be
reckoned with by any urinating male.
Jose Padua: Days of Being Wild
in the late middle
of my mortal days on earth
I am still wild in the heart
Michael Simms: A True Story of How I Almost Became a Rock and Roll God (with special appearance by Iron Butterfly)
So there I was, jumping up and down on a king-sized bed in an expensive hotel in Miami Beach, drinking rum straight from the bottle. And right beside me, jumping up and down, playing the air-guitar and blasting out his famous song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, was Doug Ingle.
Michael Simms: A Story About My Daughter's Kindness
The woman took a small knife out of her apron pocket and held the blade to the goat’s throat. Do you want to be responsible? What’s twenty pulas to you? You are a rich American and this is just a poor Botswana goat. Have you no heart?
Stephen Dobyns: Laugh
What he wished was to have his ashes flushed
down the ladies’ room toilet of Syracuse City Hall,
which would so clog the pipes that the resulting
blast of glutinous broth would douse the place clean
Abby Zimet: What would Jesus do? (Not this)
Leading as ever by invaluable example, Mike Pence declined to wear a mask Tuesday as he toured Minnesota’s renowned Mayo Clinic. He did this though the CDC’s guidelines urge Americans to wear a mask in public to minimize the spread of COVID-19…
