Late teacher’s holiday poems compiled in book
The friends and family of Richard Collins got more than just a mass-produced Christmas card every year.
They also received a poem written by the 30-year veteran teacher and coach in the Moline school system.
“It was something that he looked forward to doing,” his widow, Susan Collins, said. “Usually, they had something to do with life events during the year.”
Dick Collins died of prostate cancer in January 1992, at the age of 56. His Christmas poems tradition lasted from 1965 to 1990.
“It started before I knew him,” Susan Collins said.
Those poems have been compiled in a book, “Greater Joy, Shorter Sorrow, Thankful Prayer,” which will make its debut Saturday at the Midwest Writing Center in Davenport.
Most of the book brings back the holiday poems, but there are some other selections, Susan Collins said.
Ann Boaden, a former student of Dick Collins, and Dorothy Parkander, a former English teacher of Dick Collins’ at Augustana College in Rock Island, urged Susan Collins last summer to make the book happen. She collected all of her husband’s writings and left the decisions to Boaden and Parkander.
“Needless to say, the project has been a labor of love for all of us involved,” Boaden, an adjunct associate professor of English at Augustana, writes in an introduction. “Each piece bears the shining mark of Dick.”
The foreword for the book was written by Ryan Collins, the couple’s only child, who was 13 when his father died.
“As a young man, I don’t think he took the time to read everything,” his mother said. “It was a good experience for both of us.”
Ryan Collins is a poet himself, as well as literary arts administrator for Quad-City Arts.
“Technically, it reflects his knowledge of literature. It’s very sincere and accessible. It’s certainly not high-falutin’,” Ryan Collins said of the book. “It’s interesting to get an idea of where his head was at at least once a year.”
Proceeds from the book will be divided between the Midwest Writing Center and a scholarship in Richard Collins’ name.
Readings from the book will take place Saturday. Susan Collins said there is a possibility of a related set of holiday cards, using her husband’s text and Bill Hannan’s illustrations from the book.
“I’m happy it’s something that can be shared with family and friends and interested
people,” she said.
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.