Ordinary Words; Extraordinary Results

“I don't like poetry that doesn't give me a sense of ritual, but I don't like poetry that doesn't sound like people talking to each other. I try to do both at once.” – Miller Williams

Born in the small town of Hoxie, AR on this date in 1930, Williams planned to become a natural scientist – especially working with animals – but his love of writing got in the way.  By the time of his death in 2015 he had produced nearly 40 books, created and read a poem at the Presidential Inauguration of fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton, and helped found The University of Arkansas Press.

He had his first collection of poems Et Centera published while he was still an undergraduate student in biology at Arkansas State University.  His treatise on writing poetry, Making a Poem: Some Thoughts About Poetry and the People Who Write It, is regularly studied in colleges and universities around the world.      A critic once wrote that Miller had "a terrible honesty" and "(wrote) about ordinary people in the extraordinary moments of their lives."   

Among his many awards were the Porter Prize Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement in Writing, the National Poets’ Prize – for his collection Living on the Surface – and the National Arts Award for his lifelong contribution to the arts. 

“I respond to mood. I hear some phrase, or pick up a rhythm,” he once said of his writing style.  “I always have pen and paper with me.”

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