Former KCKCC Instructor Honored in Virtual Scholarship Fundraiser

Former KCKCC Instructor Honored in Virtual Scholarship Fundraiser

Plans for the 10th annual Philip Miller Memorial Scholarship Reading are underway. The reading honors Phil Miller, a former Kansas City Kansas Community College faculty member known for his love of poetry and for promoting literary writing through readings.

Phil Miller taught English composition and literature at KCKCC as well as creative writing and learning center courses from 1976 until he retired in 2002. He also co-created the Riverfront Reading Series in the mid-1980s, which still continues. The reading series highlights poetry and fiction readings and are held on the second Friday of each month. For more information about the series, visit www.riverfrontreadings.com.

This year’s memorial scholarship reading, the Haunted Words Poetry Open Mic, will be held via Zoom from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 25. Zoom registration is at http://tinyurl.com/rfhw2020. Once again, the theme of the event is Ghosts and/or the Poetry of Phil Miller. Because this year’s event is on Zoom, participants are being asked to keep their readings short and are limited to two poems each. To sign up in advance, send an email to carl@riverfrontreadings.com. Sign-ups will be available the day of the event if there are slots remaining.

Donations collected will go toward the Philip Miller Scholarship fund at KCKCC. The $500 scholarship will be awarded to at least one KCKCC student each year.

If unable to attend the scholarship reading event, donations to the Philip Miller Scholarship Fund can be mailed to Kansas City Kansas Community College Foundation, Attn: Deborah Cowick, 7250 State Ave., Room 3500, Kansas City, Kan. 66112. Checks should be made payable to the KCKCC Foundation. Please write “Philip Miller Scholarship” in the Notes section.

To donate online, visit kckcc.edu/foundation/giving/index.html. Click on the blue box that says “Donate to the KCKCC Foundation.” Follow the on-screen directions. When given the opportunity to add a comment, enter “Philip W. Miller Memorial Scholarship.”

Thank you to Kelly Rogge, KCKCC Public Relations Manager, for preparing this press release.

Driving Through Kansas in Late Autumn by Philip Miller
First you see
tar paper, clapboard, old red barn,
yellow trees against a sky
smeared gray.
Then these catch your eye:
tip of weathervane, slow
blade of windmill slicing
air, hawk’s slant wing,
curve of crow,
windrow of dishwater hay;
rusty bristleweed, rooster comb
of dry sumac,
a stand of cattle splotched
eggshell, coal, burnt sienna,
before your eyes blur,
let landscape slide
to dusky field and ditch,
to umber, ash, and teal,
to thin streak of rouge,
to one long wash of bruise.

(Previously published in Modern Images)

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