Vox Populi

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

Baron Wormser: Dissident

    Of necessity, the path of the dissident, since it depends on the exactions of conscience, is a solitary one. I think of Henry David Thoreau’s night in a jail … Continue reading

March 30, 2025 · 17 Comments

Douglas Penick: “I am old”

As more and more of us live to advanced years, it is crucial to accept and even embrace our condition.

October 3, 2023 · 13 Comments

John Burroughs: Waiting

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind nor tide nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

August 25, 2023 · 6 Comments

Baron Wormser: Within The Weeping Was Joy

Preface to the 2nd Edition of The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid

April 7, 2023 · 7 Comments

Wendy Mnookin: In the Small Rotary

where Route 100 meets School Street,
two cows graze.

March 2, 2022 · 1 Comment

Henry David Thoreau: On Eating Animals

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilised.

January 8, 2022 · 3 Comments

Rachel Hadas: What do the classics teach us about hope?

How do we weather this welter of bad news? How do we adapt?

September 12, 2021 · 3 Comments

Henry Beston: A Year of life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. I have heard them all, and of the three elemental voices, that of ocean is the most awesome, beautiful and varied.

September 6, 2020 · 1 Comment

Chard deNiord: The Music of Being

Hold a hazelnut up to your eyes
as a lens for seeing through,
then wake to a katydid and say its name.

February 23, 2020 · Leave a comment

Vox Populi: An Interview With Our Editor

On Friday, we caught up with poet, blogger, editor and activist Michael Simms at his kitchen table where he was preparing his Saturday morning post for Vox Populi.

February 22, 2020 · 28 Comments

Rachel Carson: The Beauties and Mysteries of the Earth

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.

May 26, 2019 · 1 Comment

Jason Brennan: When the state is unjust, citizens may use justifiable violence

If you see police choking someone to death – such as Eric Garner, the 43-year-old black horticulturalist wrestled down on the streets of New York City in 2014 – you … Continue reading

December 14, 2018 · Leave a comment

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

The sun is warm, the sky is clear, The waves are dancing fast and bright, Blue isles and snowy mountains wear The purple noon’s transparent might, The breath of the … Continue reading

August 1, 2018 · Leave a comment

Emrys Westacott: The Simple Life

Why less is more — more or less.

January 21, 2018 · 1 Comment

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