Baron Wormser: Remembering the Alchemists & Other Essays
One sentence speaks for all his direct, well-wrought sentences: “We are inside the largest militarist society the world has ever known, and we are at war always.”
Rebecca Gordon: American Exceptionalism on Full Display
Why This Country Might Want to Lower Its Expectations
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: When Monrovia Rises
All day, boys younger
than history can remember, shout at one another
on a street corner near me about a country they
have never seen.
Mehdi Alavi: British Genocide in Kenya | Time for a Reckoning
No sum can ever wipe out the suffering of the Kenyan people. But British reparations will serve three important functions.
Abby Zimet: It Was Dark. It Was Loud. It Was Hard For Many.
In America, where the dark and crazy remain strong, we choose to begin the year taking solace and inspiration from President Zelensky…
Barbara Hamby: Elvis and Tolstoy Save the World
I am standing in line waiting for the bus to take me
across the street to Graceland when Tolstoy shows up
with his white beard and peasant’s garb
The Ancient Icelandic Saga Voluspo: “The Wise-Woman’s Prophecy”
Fast move the sons | of Mim, and fate
Is heard in the note | of the Gjallarhorn;
Loud blows Heimdall, | the horn is aloft,
In fear quake all | who on Hel-roads are
Michael T. Young: The Spoils of War
A little girl grips the one toy she was
allowed to carry away through crowds
stumbling together from their homes.
Lasse Söderberg: A part of America
They are watching us in their field glasses.
We are watching them in our field glasses.
Video: Night Visit (Mature)
Ruthie spends an unusual night with a guy from her village. After discovering the troubling circumstances that led to their unexpected romantic encounter, she must seek the truth and find her own way to confront him. (Subtitled)
Michael Simms: My Recent and Forthcoming Books
Vox Populi doesn’t usually include advertisements, but I hope you will indulge me when I let you know that my recently published books are available.
Helen Benedict: Unequal Mercy
Most of the countries embracing Ukrainians are simultaneously persecuting equally desperate refugees from elsewhere.
Baron Wormser: The Nightmare of Power
Over and over, I read and hear about power. The United States is a power, a great power, a super-power locked in ineluctable contests with other powers that pundits comment … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: Ukraine’s Battle of the Somme
Putin’s bloody debacle in Ukraine reflects a system “in which medievalism meets Stalinism meets dark farce.”
