“Poetry Lovers” — Image by kenne
Born in Milford, Delaware in 1938, Robert Phillips passed away January 21, 2022
W.H. Auden said of artists, “We were put on earth to make things.” We can do so by being generous
as well as by being creative, by becoming a master class to someone else. We all have it within us,
the capacity to make someone else’s luck.
One of the first presenters at the Writers in Performance Series, Lone Star College, Montgomery
and one of my favorites, was Robert Phillips. Robert authored more than 30 volumes of poetry, one of
which is Spinach Days. It’s not easy to select a poem for the Capturing the Word series, since I like
most all Robert’s poetry.
Early Lesson
Her mother brought her down
to the laundry room. Picking
through the wicker clothes basket
she explained, “You must separate
the colored from the white.”
Her mother brought her down
And they did. Their black maid,
ironing in the corner, nodded.
— Robert Phillips, Spinach Days
Like that poem,
I feel honored to have met Robert several times. An excellent writer and teacher at the University of Houston.