Michael Simms: Brotherly Love
we’re afraid to look deprivation
in the eye, resent admitting our own dumb luck
Michael Simms: No
No is not nothing. When everything has been taken from you, no is all you have left.
Michael Simms: Rumor of War | February 24, 2022 
I’ll say it again and say it differently
because the horror of war must never be forgotten.
The boy hid beneath the stairs
when the Good Guys came to kill him.
Meleager: A Garland of Love Poems
Ah, little archer, so you thought
to hide from me there
in Zenophila’s eyes!
Michael Simms: Nightjar
a nightjar flies over the ruined houses
carrying a soul, passing it
from one bird to the next,
never content with its song
Dear Vox Populi subscribers
Whoops and yay! Because of a technical glitch, instead of one poem, six were sent out to our subscribers this morning, but as it turns out, the glitch resulted in … Continue reading
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
Michael Simms: Jesus
Sixteen and running
From my father’s fists
I once tried to jump on a moving train
Michael Simms: Satan and the Snowman
I don’t have relationships,
the old drunk explained
with surprising wisdom,
I take hostages.
Michael Simms: Dear Vox Populi subscribers
The next VP posts will go live on Tuesday, December 14, with a meditative poem about light and dark by Baron Wormser and a passionate essay about violence against women by Sarah Lahm. You don’t want to miss the work of these two gifted writers.
Michael Simms: What it wasn’t
It wasn’t bigger than a breadbox.
It wasn’t smooth as glass.
It didn’t smell good or bad
Or have any taste whatsoever.
Michael Simms: Mac
One of my first mentors was Mac McInerny, an old farmer who hired me when I was 16 to work in his greenhouse and to do handyman repairs for his friends. We drove around town in his beat-up pickup truck delivering gravel and lumber, fixing roofs and planting trees.
Michael Simms: The Door
The first time I saw him
he was a beautiful Irish boy,
an extra in a Synge play…
Virtual Book Launch! “Nightjar” by Michael Simms, w/ Gerry LaFemina, Gail Langstroth, and Sharon Fagan McDermott — Today!
Poet and classical scholar Rachel Hadas notes that the poems “recall the darkly vatic voice of Brecht’s late lyrics. Yet, Simms always sounds like himself: plainspoken, intimate, vulnerable, courageous.”
Vox Populi 