Ronald Wilcox
RONALD WILCOX {[email protected]} was born in Holladay, Utah, in 1934. Educated at Brigham Young University, he later received a Masters Degree of Arts from Baylor University, where he studied experimental drama with theatrical innovator Paul Baker. He played the lead role in Thomas Wolfe’s Of Time and the River. This ground-breaking, mixed-media rendition of the novel became the premiere production of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dallas Theater Center. As a Resident Artist in the Professional Repertory Company for twenty-three years, Ron appeared in over sixty plays. Four of his own plays were produced in Dallas, San Antonio, New York City, Hollywood and Los Angeles. He designed and directed the premiere of his multi-media poetic drama, The Tragedy of Thomas Andros. He has published a novel,The Rig. He has contributed to Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought since 1967. His latest poetic narrative, Mormon Epic, tells the story of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel. Ordinary and Profane Poems is extracted from a book-length poetic sequence (Chapters 16 and 17) entitled True Stories from a Fictional Life. At eighty-two years of age, Ron continues to write lyric poetry, concentrating on the sonnet form.
Prayers Public and Private
Articles/Essays – Volume 06, No. 3
No, Father, I never got over
that first rush of anger
like wings folding round me
as I discovered the world
Morality or Empathy? A Mormon in the Theater
Articles/Essays – Volume 02, No. 1
Late one night last November, after a visit to Utah, I was driving across the New Mexico desert. It’s a long way from Ogden to Dallas, especially in a Volkswagen, but I’ve always found the…
Read moreConvictus or The Navigator’s Confession
Articles/Essays – Volume 02, No. 3
“I am the captain of my soul.” W.E.H. Well sir, I have with trickery and wicked suretyset irremediable courses, have by long habit fixed as my sole owner myself, have practically eradicated from consideration all suggestions offered freely by…
Read morePortrait of a Puritan
Articles/Essays – Volume 02, No. 3
Let him, who hangs between two poles (approval-disapproval), who fits or does not fit the occasion according to conscience, alone. His will is not his own. He is the child of cant. His ubiquitous parent peers preponderantand always over the rims of thin…
Read moreMultiplicity
Articles/Essays – Volume 07, No. 3
There has been one and one only perfect moment
when the awful machinations of chance completely and smoothly meshed,
each part moving in single precision,
when the intricate multiplicity of myriad circumstance,
Memorial Day, 1978
Articles/Essays – Volume 11, No. 4
Morning
My father’s body sounds,
those noises keeping him alive,
I hold dear and dumb, my own:
his son’s heart pounds
Memory’s Duty
Articles/Essays – Volume 16, No. 4
Like an irresistible green vegetation
easing over everything in time,
a sense of comfort crept over my mother,
weaving into her slowly tendrils of death.