Compassion

Stanley Miller Williams (1930 – 2015) was born in Hoxie, Arkansas, the son of an itinerant Methodist minister. He attended college planning to study English and foreign languages, but switched to biology after a school psychologist told him he showed no verbal aptitude and, ultimately, earned a graduate degree in zoology. Father of singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams, Miller published a total of 37 books of poetry and prose, was founding director of the University of Arkansas Press, and served as a mentor to many aspiring writers, including Billy Collins. Miller’s own mentor was his good friend, Flannery O’Conner.

From The Ways We Touch: Poems. Copyright 1997 by Miller Williams.