Vox Populi

For centuries, people have dreamed of undoing Babel. Sci-fi novelists envisioned universal translators, and linguists devised international languages, all in pursuit of a world where one person could speak and another could understand, regardless of where either was born. Artificial intelligence appears to be taking humanity one step closer toward that goal. AI-powered tools are already being…

Translated by Coleman Barks This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.A joy, a depression, a meanness,some momentary awareness comesas an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all!Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,who violently sweep your houseempty of its furniture,still, treat each guest honorably.He may be clearing you outfor some new delight.The dark thought,…

Somewhere north of Kansas City, my father disappeared in himself as he often didthen returned and noticed the blacktop rolling throughthe roiling center of America which he lovedwith unquestioning ardor. In the long journey awayfrom my father, I’ve often rememberedthe way he drove in a tranceand suddenly wokesurprised to be in his life, and I promised myselfto be here, wherever here isWe were…

Lifestyle is on again We don’t want to watch it The figure Trump drew for Epstein’s birthday card first had to step out of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s wallpaperWhen the last cis-man on earth tried to write about “big girls” it came out “ten things to say to a dead woman” thighs or melons on a conveyor beltlooked, to a poetry grad student, like breastsand the world did not split openSTOP WRITING…

A poor diet now outranks smoking as the leading cause of death [on the planet, as well as specifically] in the United States. In the U.S., the #1 killer of Americans is the American diet. So, if diet is humanity’s #1 killer, then obviously it’s the #1 thing taught in medical school, right? Sadly, “medical students around the world [are] poorly trained in nutrition.” It’s not that medical students…

Call the roller of big cigars,The muscular one, and bid him whipIn kitchen cups concupiscent curds.Let the wenches dawdle in such dressAs they are used to wear, and let the boysBring flowers in last month’s newspapers.Let be be the finale of seem.The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.Take from the dresser of deal,Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheetOn which she embroidered fantails…

Blue bottle glass in between the ties in the train yard, the meadowlark’s yellow breast crested with black. Strands of barbed wire hang loosely between posts that resemble failed trees, knot holed and grain ribbed. One calf is so adept at escaping the fence that it wears a forked tree branch fastened between shoulders and skull. One end is already through the barbs, the other is gouging a…

Reflecting pool before and after Trump (Facebook) . When things don’t go well for President Trump, his usual response is to search for someone or something to blame. Rigged elections, weaponized prosecutions, and the deep state are some of his favorite targets. So when his plan to renovate Washington’s iconic Reflecting Pool turned into a fiasco, it was not surprising that he went back to a…

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, July 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) ~~~ Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where an abuser or manipulator repeatedly denies facts, twists the truth, or invents scenarios. The goal is to make the victim doubt their own memory, perception of reality, or sanity. Over time, victims…

My mind keens toward the day,hovers between sleep and wake.Limbs begin to stir,dreams turn vivid and chaotic: I run into people not seen for years,show up in unfamiliar homes,return to previous lives, converse with the dead in many languages,wrestle with angels and demons,the onslaught of regrets.Things I forgot to do crystallize:who to call, who to console,the picture that needs a frame,the…

In memory of Holly  Jan 27, 1969 — Jun 4, 2026 Holly and I, both outcasts, clung to each other like life preservers.  We were in the fifth grade when we met on the playground at Huntertown Elementary in rural northeast Indiana. Our friendship was forged in the crucible of our shared abuse and powerlessness. Neither of us could have survived without the other. When we were at each other’s homes,…

It’s an early Monday morningand I’m leaning against the doorof the E train, scanning the faces of other riders. My eyes stumble on a well dressed black man sitting across the car, crying quietly, streaks making their way down his face, shoulders starting to stutter until he bends over, tries to coverhis face with his dark brown fedora.I look around, half the passengersare lost to their iPhones,…

Demonstrators from the pro-Palestine encampment on Columbia’s Campus show a banner as they barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall, an academic building which has been occupied in past by student movements, and name it after a Palestinian child killed by the Israeli military on April 30, 2024, in New York City. ALEX KENT / GETTY IMAGES . Contemporary proponents of ‘institutional neutrality’…

From where I sit outside, mending the denimshirt he loved & I wear thin, I can’t see if — abovethe kitchen door — the clocks’ hands have cometogether now. The sun flings out all its light, yetthin shadings fade away from under the dozingdog’s paws & a softer gray lets go from my chippedmug. Even my own shadow no longer stains the shirtin my lap; & just before the afternoon comes to hazethe light…

1)I should have known better than to pursue a 27-year-old Jew from Martiniquewith a long, fine face.Compared to her smooth skin,I felt as old as a rock-covered well in the Negev Desert.2)After our third date,she posted a video of herself dancing too close to her personal trainer.A slender pink dress framed her like a masterpieceno man can own.A necklace dangled down her dark skin with stones cut…

Could the Odyssey preserve echoes of long-lost voyages beyond the Mediterranean—perhaps even across the Atlantic? A speculative discussion informed by Homeric scholarship, archaeology, and ancient literature. A plaster cast of a bust of Homer, modern copy taken from the cast in the Goethe Nationalmuseum, Weimar, which is thought to have belonged to Goethe, the original Hellenistic bust was made…

A Thank You to the Ransacker-in-Chief Consider this my deeply felt thank you to Donald Trump. Only the other day, this ancient mariner (that’s me, of course!) turned 82 years old and, in another world, I would undoubtedly have retired long ago. But — much appreciated, Donald! — not with this president in the White House. After all, I don’t have to struggle (as once upon a time) to come up with…