Michael Simms

The young man and the older woman met at an artist’s colony. They were both in the habit of walking on the wooded paths in the afternoon, so

A poem is rooted in the rhythms of pulse, breath and movement. Why some patterns of sounds are more pleasing than others is a mystery, yet

Pittsburgh is home to major museums, art galleries and a wide variety of monuments and public sculptures, but the empty walls beside busy st

I’ve always loved poetry that has a clear voice, a strong reliance on craft, and a sense that a person is speaking about ideas or incidents

Should literary authors take genre fiction more seriously? Michael Chabon thinks so. My friend RJ, a wonderful poet and an extraordinarily

In 1987, students gathered in front of the admin building angry over the corruption of the university’s board. The crowd was getting...

Today on the Classic Cars website, I saw an ad for a fully restored 1965 GMC pickup with a hard-shell camper hood, and I thought of Henry

Folk artist and quilt maker Harriet Powers (1837-1910) was born into slavery outside Athens, Georgia. She was married at 18 and gave...

From a neighbor’s window, I hear Billy Joel’s carpe diem Only the Good Die Young in which he tries to convince a good Catholic girl

I grew up in Texas beef country down the street from a world-famous barbecue stand. I didn’t become a vegan until I was 56 years old. I...

A writer without a reader is an empty thing, a thumb without a finger to oppose it, a traveler without a companion. I was appalled by the...

The first known tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to...

Yesterday afternoon when I got home from the hospital and booted my computer, I was overwhelmed by the thousands of people who sent me...

So there I was, jumping up and down on a king-sized bed in an expensive hotel in Miami Beach, drinking rum straight from the bottle. And...

In an Artist’s Studio One face looks out from all his canvases, One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans: We found her hidden just...

My work in the poetry field the last 40 years has been largely behind the scenes — editing, publishing, promoting, organizing, raising money

I have a mild version of Asperger’s syndrome — also known as “high functioning autism.”

Robert Gibb is a poet’s poet. By that phrase I mean that he’s widely admired among poets across the country, but virtually unknown to

The origins of the world holiday known as May Day or International Workers Day. Originally a pagan holiday, the roots of the modern May...

In our garden of blueberry, elderberry, rose, zinnia, sage, oregano, and tomato, Eva and I have decided to reserve a corner that will be...

Once again, a poet has emailed me, peeved that a poem of hers that appeared in Vox Populi is not anything like the version she sent me....