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Michael Simms
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Blog posts including essays by author Michael Simms.
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Michael Simms
Oct 5, 20232 min read
Rhythm Benders | The Musicality of American Poetry
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
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Michael Simms
Jul 29, 20232 min read
Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Street Art in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is home to major museums, art galleries and a wide variety of monuments and public sculptures, but the empty walls beside busy st
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Michael Simms
Jul 9, 20232 min read
Strangers at the Door | Robert Gibb, Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Jose Padua
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
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Michael Simms
May 5, 202311 min read
Orpheus in Hollywood
Should literary authors take genre fiction more seriously? Michael Chabon thinks so.
My friend RJ, a wonderful poet and an extraordinarily
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Michael Simms
Jul 1, 20215 min read
The Courage of Teachers
In 1987, students gathered in front of the admin building angry over the corruption of the university’s board. The crowd was getting...
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Michael Simms
Mar 14, 20218 min read
The Trojan Women
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
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Michael Simms
Feb 28, 20213 min read
Harriet Powers: Quilt Maker
Folk artist and quilt maker Harriet Powers (1837-1910) was born into slavery outside Athens, Georgia. She was married at 18 and gave...
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Michael Simms
Nov 28, 20205 min read
Blue Notes
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
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Michael Simms
Sep 25, 20205 min read
A Few Thoughts from a Cowboy Vegan
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...
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Michael Simms
Jul 24, 20204 min read
Praise the Poet
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...
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Michael Simms
Jun 27, 20204 min read
A Brief History Of Tree Hugging
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...
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Michael Simms
May 9, 20205 min read
On my recent experience with Covid (maybe)
Yesterday afternoon when I got home from the hospital and booted my computer, I was overwhelmed by the thousands of people who sent me...
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Michael Simms
May 8, 20202 min read
A True Story of How I Almost Became a Rock and Roll God (with special appearance by Iron Butterfly)
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...
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Michael Simms
Jan 24, 20206 min read
Re-reading Christina Rossetti’s ‘In an Artist’s Studio’
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...
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Michael Simms
Aug 24, 20196 min read
Dogsbody to the Muse
My work in the poetry field the last 40 years has been largely behind the scenes — editing, publishing, promoting, organizing, raising money
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Michael Simms
Aug 10, 20197 min read
On the Spectrum with Garrison Keillor
I have a mild version of Asperger’s syndrome — also known as “high functioning autism.”
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Michael Simms
Feb 24, 20185 min read
An Appreciation of the Poetry of Robert Gibb
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
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Michael Simms
Apr 30, 20177 min read
A Short History of May Day
The origins of the world holiday known as May Day or International Workers Day. Originally a pagan holiday, the roots of the modern May...
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Michael Simms
Jun 14, 20164 min read
The Apothecary in the Back Yard
In our garden of blueberry, elderberry, rose, zinnia, sage, oregano, and tomato, Eva and I have decided to reserve a corner that will be...
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Michael Simms
Feb 6, 20165 min read
The Vagaries of Publishing Poetry on the Internet
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....
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