Vox Populi

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

Sabine Oishi: Nazi Gold & The Gnomes of Zürich

A hoard of gold, jewels and priceless art is securely tucked away, guarded, so the joke has long gone, by the gnomes of Zürich.

March 17, 2023 · 2 Comments

Sabine Oishi: When the US bombed Switzerland

Although Switzerland was not actively involved in WWII, it suffered a total of seventy bombings by Allied airplanes between 1940 and 1945.

January 26, 2023 · 2 Comments

Edward Harkness: My Father Meets Margaret Bourke-White 

He finds a Hershey bar
in his breast pocket, offers her a piece.
She flicks her cigarette into the dark,
takes the chocolate and says, Thanks, kiddo.

September 20, 2022 · 12 Comments

John Lawson: Two Dreams

She is one of that generation the heroes fought
And died for, inheritors of prim suburban homes
Purchased by the drowned

July 26, 2022 · Leave a comment

Mike Schneider: Spring Mills

Stars & stripes ripple from the pole.
An old willow leans over the water,
strand after strand of green tears.

May 30, 2022 · 6 Comments

Sydney Lea: Living History

I was not quite ten years old the day we traveled
To one site of the D-Day invasion nine years before.
I asked what the trouble was. His words sounded cryptic:
“We lost a lot of men here.”

May 29, 2022 · 2 Comments

Tom Engelhardt: Ukraine in Perspective

A Historical Feast of Death and Destruction from the Peloponnesian Wars to Late Tomorrow Night.

April 8, 2022 · 4 Comments

Michael Simms: Rumor of War | February 24, 2022 

I’ll say it again and say it differently
because the horror of war must never be forgotten.
The boy hid beneath the stairs
when the Good Guys came to kill him.

February 26, 2022 · 14 Comments

Adam G. Klein: How to fight Holocaust denial in social media – with the evidence of what really happened

As social media platforms fight Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, online archives offer another possible approach: direct links to the historic truth.

January 27, 2022 · 2 Comments

Paul Christensen: A Christmas at Home

She didn’t know why, but she said she was very happy, as happy as she had ever been. She was like a voice in the midst of war, a calming, soothing voice from home. He heard the words, he was moved to tears at their affection. He had survived.

December 24, 2021 · 5 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

George Lakey: As the US empire declines, what openings exist for progressive movements?

Hard as it may be to see beyond the chaos and suffering in Afghanistan, the larger picture reveals real opportunities for social change.

August 25, 2021 · Leave a comment

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle): The Walls Do Not Fall

tendons, muscles shattered, outer husk dismembered,
yet the frame held:
we passed the flame: we wonder
what saved us? what for?

August 20, 2021 · Leave a comment

Michael Simms: The Four Coups of Joe Medicine Crow

According to the Crow tradition of counting coups, a warrior can earn the title by completing four coups or deeds in battle. The four coups are: lead a war party into battle, sneak into an enemy camp at night and steal a horse, take away an enemy’s weapon, and touch an enemy without being harmed.

July 4, 2021 · 8 Comments

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