BILL: THE ARCHER POET
Though Bill Anderson was known to be a quiet man, he left an enormous cache of expressive poems inspired by the Concord landscape. They reveal a young man who, through archery and exploration of the land around him, would often transcend into a spiritual connection to nature. The subject matter of approximately eighty poems are tightly woven: archery, nature, beauty, religion and the beyond.
Bill, spiritually at home in the woods at Nine Acre Corner and nearby Sudbury River, was sympathetic to the Native Americans. As a youth, he often made his own arrows and once canoed up the Assabet with a friend, wearing only loin cloths. According to legend, as a teen, he shot a courting message into the front door of his future wife’s home with an arrow. Boy Scouts formalized his woodsmanship and further developed an innate sense of duty and honor. He was Concord’s first Eagle Scout.
Bill’s mother’s family, the Wheelers, had been Unitarian for generations, recognizing a sanctity in nature. In addition, his mother was a devotee of Henry David Thoreau, which no doubt had a strong affect on Bill. Whether or not he attended Sunday School religiously, which he likely did, he was deeply dedicated to a church he felt in nature.
Bill won his first award when he was seven with a poem about a mouse who wandered into a trap. In high school he won more contests and was singled out to write the yearbook class song (poem) for graduation, an honor his father had previously won. Many poems may have been written in college and during service in WWII. Following the war, the demands of work and family took the time previously given to write. The poems were filed away.
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COMPLETE COLLECTION BY CATEGORY
The poems (and expository pieces) are sorted roughly into categories as subject matter frequently overlaps. Many of the pieces are drafts or handwritten.
NATIVE / NATURE
ARCHERY AND FISHING
THE BEYOND
GOD
HONOR
BEAUTY / LOVE
MISCELLANEOUS