Robert Bernard Hass: El Duende | On the Origins of Rafael Nadal’s Tennis Artistry
As Rafael Nadal attempts to win his unprecedented 14th French Open title, whether he wins or loses, we can rest assured that he will dazzle us with an athletic beauty that emerges from this ethos.
Baron Wormser: A Poetry Proposal
There is no shortage of poems and no shortage of strategies to deliver the poems. The failing lies in our wariness. It’s true: to embrace poetry is to embrace a degree of uncertainty. Yet what else is life?
Michael Simms: Brotherly Love
we’re afraid to look deprivation
in the eye, resent admitting our own dumb luck
Alison Luterman: A Woman Speaks of Marriages
I’ve known marriages like Niagaras, that splashed and thundered,
whose couples careened down them bravely, wearing only barrels.
Kim Stafford: Four poems about the current war
How much rain to fill the Volga?
Not soon, the end of weeping.
Dawn Potter: Now that I’m old
now that I don’t have sex every night or carry two fat boys,
one on each hip, up small mountains,
I have to go to exercise class
Michael Simms: No
No is not nothing. When everything has been taken from you, no is all you have left.
Video: “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye
In this short animated video, Naomi Shihab Nye reads her famous poem “Kindness.”
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
Abby Zimet: Slipping Free of the Shame To Say His Name, Now More Than Ever
If he’d been allowed to live his “one wild and precious life,” Sunday July 25 would have been the 80th birthday of Emmett Till, who at 14 was kidnapped, whipped, … Continue reading
Robert Wrigley: What She Said
She said to him, Oh, Jack, what have they done?
Mary Swander: Covid-19 among the Amish
The Amish have become an experiment in herd immunity, the direction where we all seem to be headed in the U.S.
Allan Lichtman: The 13 Keys to the White House
Biden will win by a narrow margin, says historian who correctly predicted every presidential race since 1984.
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