Remembering Bill Moyers | John Fox

Bill Moyers (1934-2025) died at the age of 91 on Thursday, June 26th.

I am grateful to him beyond measure.

When reading his obituary in The New York Times, I was disappointed - but not surprised - that they gave about half of a sentence to his dedication to poetry. I'd like to take some time and space here to expand beyond that half sentence and recognize a larger portion of some of the appreciation Bill Moyers had for poetry and poets.

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Moyers edited and interviewed poets for what I consider an incredibly inclusive and landmark book, The Language of Life: A Festival of Life (1995).

He dedicated this book “For Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis as you set out for Ithaka.” She died the year before the publication of this great book.

Here are a few selections from this book; messages that last in the heart:

Being a human being without forgiveness is like being the guitarist without fingers or being a diva without a tongue.

~ Jimmy Santigo Baca

Poets are like steam valves, where ordinary feelings of ordinary people can escape and be shown.

~ Sharon Olds

Poetry has a great digestive system and can consume and recycle almost anything.

~ Stanley Kunitz

For us, there is not just this world, there’s also a layering of others. Time is not divided by minutes and hours, and everything has presence and meaning with this landscape of timelessness.

~ Joy Harjo

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Moyers also gathered a delightful smaller book, an anthology of poets, Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft. He writes in the Introduction of this book,

“I am a journalist not a literary critic; the only thing I can tell you about poetry is that I like it. The sounds of poems are pleasing to me, and I enjoy a poem read aloud even when I do not wholly understand it. Talking to poets about their lives also makes poetry more accessible to me. Once I know how a poet feels about a granddaughter or a father’s death or about hiding under the steps to read while other kids were playing soccer, I am more likely to hear a poet’s voice in a poem.”

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And beyond these print publications, there is a series of interviews Moyers did for a PBS program called The Power of the Word. He interviews indigenous poets Mary TallMountain, Joy Harjo and Garret Hongo. These interviews were a small portion of how his love for poetry flourished over many years. Please see and hear those interviews here.

I knew Bill Moyers had a particular appreciation for my dear friend Mary TallMountain and her poetry. Regarding her book Listen to the Night: Poems for the Animal Spirits of Mother Earth, he said:

“Her poetry is a permanent testament to the rich tapestry of experience that was her life.”

~ Bill Moyers

Mary TallMountain reads from her poetry collection

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Moyers brought an immense raising of awareness of and sensitivity to Poets and Poetry.

Back in the 90s, when I was on the Board of the National Association for Poetry Therapy (1992-2005), I worked to establish a few awards to recognize people. One of these was the Public Service Award. I recommended that Bill Moyers receive that award in 1995. I am not aware of how many people knew about that award for him but I was always proud of that opportunity to bow to Moyers and his powerful and loving lifting up of poetry.

He will be missed.