Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.

Ma Yongbo: Three poems translated from Chinese

The horse drawn cart hasn’t gone far, it will carry away
the love of the land, and one or two shy grasshoppers.
At this moment, her hanging sickle
reflects the white light of winter arising in the distance.

August 21, 2025 · 37 Comments

Yongbo Ma: Midway Stop

It was an autumn long ago
I was still young then, still in love with something

May 7, 2024 · 10 Comments

Video: Heading South

In this poignant understated film, eight year old Chasuna travels from her home on the Mongolian grassland to visit her father who lives in the big city. 

April 20, 2024 · 4 Comments

Jianqing Zheng: The Dog Years of Reeducation (excerpt)

When the sampan glides to shore, the bird lands back on the shoulder of the rowing girl while lotus leaves whisper in the morning sunshine.

March 21, 2024 · 4 Comments

Alfred W. McCoy: Cold Wars, Hot Planet, and New Geopolitical Firestorms

With so many mesmerized by the conflict in Ukraine and the possibility of another over Taiwan, world leaders largely ignore the rising threat of climate change.

October 19, 2022 · Leave a comment

John Fetter: China Will Decide the Outcome of Russia v. the West

Is Putin the Face of the Future or the Final Gasp of the Past?

June 27, 2022 · 2 Comments

Jeffrey C. Isaac: The Fascists Are Rising in the Name of Defending Democracy—They Must Be Called Out and Stopped

Of course, Trump and his supporters do not mean by “democracy” a liberal democracy. They mean the popular sovereignty of “true Americans.”

December 15, 2021 · 6 Comments

William Astore: Back to the Future at the Pentagon

‘It hardly occurs to us to question how the Pentagon’s mad military scenarios about near-peer wars could indeed end in nuclear annihilation.’

April 12, 2021 · 3 Comments

Alfred McCoy: Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion

China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia, the Epicenter of World Power

March 24, 2021 · 1 Comment

Julianne Chung: To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’

Creativity isn’t conceived as aiming at novelty or originality, but rather integration. Instead of aiming at something new, it aims at something that combines well with the situation of which it’s a part.

March 9, 2021 · 2 Comments

Karen J. Greenberg: While Rome Burns, Trump Gets What He’s Always Wanted

In unsettling ways, the crisis is working for him as previously untenable policy options are becoming essential to curtailing the coronavirus.

April 9, 2020 · Leave a comment

John Feffer: After Trump

Centrist liberalism is dead, and Trump is a disaster. But progressives can use what he’s done to remake America and its place in the world. Donald Trump has shaken up … Continue reading

March 25, 2019 · Leave a comment

Joan E. Bauer: River Dolphin of the Yangtze

We sailed on a river boat down the Yangtze twenty years ago—before the Three Gorges Dam   & the rising water lowered the mountains. That day the peaks shrouded with … Continue reading

June 15, 2018 · Leave a comment

Michael T. Klare: Fossil-Fueled Republicanism

Pop the champagne corks in Washington! It’s party time for Big Energy. In the wake of the midterm elections, Republican energy hawks are ascendant, having taken the Senate and House … Continue reading

November 24, 2014 · Leave a comment

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