Joan E. Bauer: Brilliant Modernist, Armored Life
Afraid of heights, she stood on ledges.
To onlookers, she’d say:
Buddy, I’m not a nice girl. I’m a photographer.
I go anywhere.
Michael Simms: Here are the most popular Vox Populi posts of 2019
In 2019 Vox Populi published 751 posts, usually two per day, resulting in over 8 million views. Here is a list of our most popular posts in 2019 listed by category: poetry, personal essays, political articles, and art/music/cinema.
Joan E. Bauer: China Journal, 1997
In steam-baked Wuhan, land of fish and lakes, near the cross-banks
of Yangtze and Han, we walk into Mao’s sanctum, the grand hall
of hand-cut rock.
Joan E. Bauer: For Auden — Circling Toward Home
Art, you claimed: born of humiliation.
You knew that early & you had the gift
of double focus, of seeing the world
with more than one lens.
Joan E. Bauer: Bird’s Landing, Monongahela
They were flying steady in the winter of ’56, from Nevada, the B-25, six men on board, three pilots and crew bound east. At a stop in Oklahoma, the snow … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: The Camera Artist
In 1955, Swiss-born Robert Frank criss-crossed the United States. From 27,000 shots, 83 images: The Americans. Factory workers in Detroit, transvestites in New York City. Billowing American flags, gossamer-thin & torn. … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Duckweed
In Branchville, New Jersey, home of Bear Swamp, I’m with the Frugal Traveler & to prove I’m no stranger to frugality, I find a $57-a-night special with a bathroom painted … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: A Thousand Pigeons
Robbie, Paul & I met Carlin at the Hamburger Hamlet in Westwood in 1970. Carlin had a big laugh & shiny hair, but behind the jokes, a serious guy. He … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Remembering V. S. Naipaul at the Dawn of a Dark Century
The November rain rat-tats, beads on the window. I scratch words, anxious birds on a yellow pad. In your cottage in Wiltshire, perhaps you are writing. Your anguished Asiatic … Continue reading
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
Joan E. Bauer: Tribal
Grandpa Joe was nearly born in steerage from Palermo, but landed in Texas. He loved watching Jimmy Durante on TV. The Great Schnozzola, a man of his tribe. … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Eight Notes on the Rain
Kien waited for death, calmly recognizing that it would be ugly and inelegant. -Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War 1 spring rain, like ether, daubs down memory, mutes … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Dramatic Monologue — Joseph Brodsky
We tap dance down the highway. There’s an exit. Who made me a pharoah? Dare I gesture — or reach for a cigarette? Shouldn’t I be on the banks … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Col. John Stapp, Fastest Man in the World
What saved me were those years in Alamogordo when I was nine & ten, unfettered, unsupervised, so I could build wooden carts, play with bows & arrows, roam empty … Continue reading
