UMO prof receives top honor from state
By Melinda Harrell
Published in News on November 20, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Lenard Moore makes opening remarks before reading some of his poetry at a reception in his honor for winning the N.C. Literature Award.
Lenard Moore's relationship with words has spanned a lifetime -- from a childhood spent reading on the school bus and listening to his grandfather tell a story to his days in the Army when he and his fellow soldiers sang cadences.
He could always find a rhythm -- and loved the flow created when words came together.
So when, Nov. 13, the University of Mount Olive professor joined a distinguished list of recipients of the N.C. Award in Literature -- he was humbled by the notion that his passion had placed him on a pedestal with the likes of Maya Angelou and Doc Watson.
"I think I am still in a dream land," he said.
His work has never been about recognition.
Moore, rather, has simply been chasing the beat -- the rhyme -- he has always been able to create from what, to others, might seem ordinary.
The professor's work has appeared in 350 publications and his poetry has been published across 40 anthologies.
It ranges from three-line, 17-syllable haikus to less restricted poems about family and identity.
"But the thing I like most is teaching and mentoring," Moore said. "I can share my knowledge with my students and, hopefully, spark or ignite something within them."
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From reading on the school bus to listening to his grandfather's tales, Moore always found a sense of solace in words.
"I developed a love of language by reading those books and listening to my grandfather tell these stories," he said.
And when, after graduating from White Oak High School in 1976, he enlisted in the Army, the drudgery of basic training amplified his passion.
"I wrote a lot of poetry when I went into the Army. When I was in basic training, we would sing cadences like, 'Jody's got your girl and gone,'" Moore said. "I wrote my letters in poetic form, and I would send them to my girlfriend. Eventually, I would write poems and put them in those letters. And she still has those poems, which tells you we got married."
After he was discharged, he attended North Carolina State University and studied under North Carolina Literary Hall-of-Famer George Barrax.
"I enjoyed studying with him and learning," Moore said.
And he would go on to found the Carolina African American Writers' Collective and Washington Street Writers' Group.
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Like many writers, the words come from a place Moore has been.
So even though he has just received the state's top literary honor, he has no plans to put down his pen.
Moore will soon release a volume of poetry about the loss of his daughter, Maiisha -- an artist and published poet who died in a 2004 while attending East Carolina University.
"I have written a lot of poems about the loss of my daughter," Moore said. "I have enough to make a collection."
A collection that, he insists, will be his "most ambitious," as it has been written in more than 25 different poetic forms -- and because it is infused with the real emotions that come with losing a child far too soon.