Vox Populi

A Public Sphere for Poetry, Politics, and Nature. Over 15,000 daily subscribers. Over 7,000 archived posts.

Robert Frost: The Fear

A lantern light from deeper in the barn
Shone on a man and woman in the door
And threw their lurching shadows on a house
Near by, all dark in every glossy window.

February 10, 2023 · Leave a comment

Doug Anderson: Ghost

The old man finally just went away
to live in the mountains. Two goats,
a dog for company. The wind
made a harp of the pines.

January 12, 2023 · 11 Comments

Doug Anderson: Distance

She said my poems had emotion in them
as if they might have syphilis.

November 10, 2022 · 10 Comments

Doug Anderson: We Get Old, We Get Sick

How we stumble, are glib
in the face of our fear
when we might show
our own raw heart

August 4, 2022 · Leave a comment

Doug Anderson: What if I wrote a poem

About being seventy-seven
and trying not
to speculate how long I’ve got left

July 5, 2022 · 13 Comments

Doug Anderson: Be Whole Again Beyond Confusion

The young blame us for everything that is wrong
with the world, as if we’d plotted it that way
just to torment them, as if poisoned
the very land we’re standing on. Some of us did.

May 22, 2022 · 4 Comments

Doug Anderson: Put Your Hand In My Wound

Jesus out of his tomb and wandering
among the rotting corpses in Ukraine,
dragging his bandages behind him.

April 24, 2022 · 11 Comments

Doug Anderson: Not a Buddhist Buddhist

I’ve been doing a Buddhist practice now for some years. I’m not a Buddhist. I’m not “enlightened” nor do I see myself as superior to anyone else. I would never … Continue reading

March 4, 2022 · 3 Comments

Doug Anderson: When the Soldiers Came

They found the old monk Cheng Liu
sitting in meditation at the Temple gate
and shot him full of arrows.

January 25, 2022 · Leave a comment

Doug Anderson: Questions

Won’t you take off your mask   no, not that mask
but the one you’ve made with the muscles of your face
a shield of hide    can you let it go

January 4, 2022 · 2 Comments

James Dubinsky: Veterans turned poets can help bridge divides

Today, there are approximately 20.17 million veterans – 7 percent of the U.S. population. That’s more than 20 million stories, along with the stories of their loved ones. Sometimes poetry is the most effective way to capture both the ambiguity and the story.

November 11, 2021 · 1 Comment

Doug Anderson: Monsoon

Up river, the rich
are counting their gold
and hiring armies to protect them.

November 2, 2021 · 1 Comment

Doug Anderson: The Gravestone and the Continuing Self

When I was in my twenties I thought old age was an island only accessible by a bridge I’d never cross. But I’ve crossed it, and at seventy-eight the subject … Continue reading

August 1, 2021 · 10 Comments

Doug Anderson: Negative Capability

…art that honors the art and artist as well as its content, and apprehends it as more than its socio-political reality. Art is hard to do and not everybody can do it. It is not merely a pretext for theory.

July 23, 2021 · 4 Comments

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