WE THE PEOPLE: CONFESSIONS OF A CAUCASIAN SOUTHERNER, poetry by Harry Moore
Publication Date: July 15, 2024
Paperback, 120 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-75-2
In his new poetry collection Harry Moore looks back across the decades to his “happy rural childhood” in the American South – under the shadow of Cold War fears – and even deeper into time; but ’52 Ford pickups and boxy black Model Ts aside, this is no exercise in nostalgia. Rather, it is in every sense a confession, of witness and complicity, yes, but more importantly an act of contrition, seeking absolution and reckoning for the long history of racist violence, repression, and on-going inequities that are the legacy of his region and his people. Echoing the words of Herman Shaw, survivor of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, while we cannot amend the past, “it’s / never too late to forgive, never too late / to heal, restore trust.” Moore wonders at the possibility of such forgiveness – “after / the ships, the auction blocks, the war, / a state constitution bloated and tangled / to block freedom at every turn, lynchings / to breed fear and cowering—when we / the people have done our worst” – but he takes inspiration from Shaw’s wish for “us to be one America, / black, red, white together, trusting each other, / caring for each other, never allowing such / a tragedy again.” And in doing so the pronoun is his title expresses not only collective guilt, but also an act of hope of collective redemption. At this moment of resurgent white nationalism, when such hope might seem to be receding, Moore’s confessions are more necessary than ever.
Praise for Harry Moore & We the People
In We the People: Confessions of a Caucasian Southerner, Harry V. Moore re-visits the people, places and traditions that have defined and impacted his life. This is a brutally honest examination of what it means to be white, male and Southern in America. We the People is a reconciliation between personal privilege and collective pain. In the process, we witness one man’s quest for a deeper sense of his own humanity, his determination to not live the same history twice.
—James E. Cherry, author of Between Chance and Mercy
We the People is Harry Moore’s best book yet, the work of a mature poet at the height of his powers. Seeking to reckon as honestly as he possibly can with personal and collective histories, Moore’s poems—part memoir of a rural boy, part confession of a white southerner, part narrative connecting the past with the present—do the hard work of questioning the self and examining what brought us to this moment in the American experiment. Unearthing the etymologies of racism by attending both to what we say and what we don’t, this meticulously constructed collection provides a glimmer of hope by looking pain in the eye and acknowledging that we yet have a long way to go.
—Jennifer Horne, former Alabama Poet Laureate
These poems strongly evoke time and place — an era and a region that I know well. This powerful and poignant collection is history preserved as lyricism.
—Cynthia Tucker, journalist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning syndicated columnist
About the Author
Recipient of the 2014 Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, Harry Moore is the author of the poetry collections Bearing the Farm Away (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Broken and Blended: Love’s Alchemy (Kelsay Books, 2021), along with four chapbooks: What He Would Call Them (Finishing Line Press, 2013); Time’s Fool: Love Poems (Mule on a Ferris Wheel Press, 2014); Retreat: A Way Forward (Finishing Line Press, 2017); and Beyond Paradise: The Unweeded Garden (Main Street Rag, 2020).
His poems have appeared in Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Plainsongs, Xavier Review, Pudding Magazine, Slipstream, Main Street Rag, South Carolina Review, Blue Unicorn, Ponder Review, Anglican Theological Review, Pensive, and other journals.
Retired after teaching writing and literature for four decades in Alabama community colleges, he lives with his wife, Cassandra, in Decatur, Alabama. More info at harryvmoore.com.
Publication Date: July 15, 2024
Paperback, 120 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-75-2
In his new poetry collection Harry Moore looks back across the decades to his “happy rural childhood” in the American South – under the shadow of Cold War fears – and even deeper into time; but ’52 Ford pickups and boxy black Model Ts aside, this is no exercise in nostalgia. Rather, it is in every sense a confession, of witness and complicity, yes, but more importantly an act of contrition, seeking absolution and reckoning for the long history of racist violence, repression, and on-going inequities that are the legacy of his region and his people. Echoing the words of Herman Shaw, survivor of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, while we cannot amend the past, “it’s / never too late to forgive, never too late / to heal, restore trust.” Moore wonders at the possibility of such forgiveness – “after / the ships, the auction blocks, the war, / a state constitution bloated and tangled / to block freedom at every turn, lynchings / to breed fear and cowering—when we / the people have done our worst” – but he takes inspiration from Shaw’s wish for “us to be one America, / black, red, white together, trusting each other, / caring for each other, never allowing such / a tragedy again.” And in doing so the pronoun is his title expresses not only collective guilt, but also an act of hope of collective redemption. At this moment of resurgent white nationalism, when such hope might seem to be receding, Moore’s confessions are more necessary than ever.
Praise for Harry Moore & We the People
In We the People: Confessions of a Caucasian Southerner, Harry V. Moore re-visits the people, places and traditions that have defined and impacted his life. This is a brutally honest examination of what it means to be white, male and Southern in America. We the People is a reconciliation between personal privilege and collective pain. In the process, we witness one man’s quest for a deeper sense of his own humanity, his determination to not live the same history twice.
—James E. Cherry, author of Between Chance and Mercy
We the People is Harry Moore’s best book yet, the work of a mature poet at the height of his powers. Seeking to reckon as honestly as he possibly can with personal and collective histories, Moore’s poems—part memoir of a rural boy, part confession of a white southerner, part narrative connecting the past with the present—do the hard work of questioning the self and examining what brought us to this moment in the American experiment. Unearthing the etymologies of racism by attending both to what we say and what we don’t, this meticulously constructed collection provides a glimmer of hope by looking pain in the eye and acknowledging that we yet have a long way to go.
—Jennifer Horne, former Alabama Poet Laureate
These poems strongly evoke time and place — an era and a region that I know well. This powerful and poignant collection is history preserved as lyricism.
—Cynthia Tucker, journalist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning syndicated columnist
About the Author
Recipient of the 2014 Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, Harry Moore is the author of the poetry collections Bearing the Farm Away (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Broken and Blended: Love’s Alchemy (Kelsay Books, 2021), along with four chapbooks: What He Would Call Them (Finishing Line Press, 2013); Time’s Fool: Love Poems (Mule on a Ferris Wheel Press, 2014); Retreat: A Way Forward (Finishing Line Press, 2017); and Beyond Paradise: The Unweeded Garden (Main Street Rag, 2020).
His poems have appeared in Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Plainsongs, Xavier Review, Pudding Magazine, Slipstream, Main Street Rag, South Carolina Review, Blue Unicorn, Ponder Review, Anglican Theological Review, Pensive, and other journals.
Retired after teaching writing and literature for four decades in Alabama community colleges, he lives with his wife, Cassandra, in Decatur, Alabama. More info at harryvmoore.com.
Publication Date: July 15, 2024
Paperback, 120 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-75-2
In his new poetry collection Harry Moore looks back across the decades to his “happy rural childhood” in the American South – under the shadow of Cold War fears – and even deeper into time; but ’52 Ford pickups and boxy black Model Ts aside, this is no exercise in nostalgia. Rather, it is in every sense a confession, of witness and complicity, yes, but more importantly an act of contrition, seeking absolution and reckoning for the long history of racist violence, repression, and on-going inequities that are the legacy of his region and his people. Echoing the words of Herman Shaw, survivor of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, while we cannot amend the past, “it’s / never too late to forgive, never too late / to heal, restore trust.” Moore wonders at the possibility of such forgiveness – “after / the ships, the auction blocks, the war, / a state constitution bloated and tangled / to block freedom at every turn, lynchings / to breed fear and cowering—when we / the people have done our worst” – but he takes inspiration from Shaw’s wish for “us to be one America, / black, red, white together, trusting each other, / caring for each other, never allowing such / a tragedy again.” And in doing so the pronoun is his title expresses not only collective guilt, but also an act of hope of collective redemption. At this moment of resurgent white nationalism, when such hope might seem to be receding, Moore’s confessions are more necessary than ever.
Praise for Harry Moore & We the People
In We the People: Confessions of a Caucasian Southerner, Harry V. Moore re-visits the people, places and traditions that have defined and impacted his life. This is a brutally honest examination of what it means to be white, male and Southern in America. We the People is a reconciliation between personal privilege and collective pain. In the process, we witness one man’s quest for a deeper sense of his own humanity, his determination to not live the same history twice.
—James E. Cherry, author of Between Chance and Mercy
We the People is Harry Moore’s best book yet, the work of a mature poet at the height of his powers. Seeking to reckon as honestly as he possibly can with personal and collective histories, Moore’s poems—part memoir of a rural boy, part confession of a white southerner, part narrative connecting the past with the present—do the hard work of questioning the self and examining what brought us to this moment in the American experiment. Unearthing the etymologies of racism by attending both to what we say and what we don’t, this meticulously constructed collection provides a glimmer of hope by looking pain in the eye and acknowledging that we yet have a long way to go.
—Jennifer Horne, former Alabama Poet Laureate
These poems strongly evoke time and place — an era and a region that I know well. This powerful and poignant collection is history preserved as lyricism.
—Cynthia Tucker, journalist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning syndicated columnist
About the Author
Recipient of the 2014 Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, Harry Moore is the author of the poetry collections Bearing the Farm Away (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Broken and Blended: Love’s Alchemy (Kelsay Books, 2021), along with four chapbooks: What He Would Call Them (Finishing Line Press, 2013); Time’s Fool: Love Poems (Mule on a Ferris Wheel Press, 2014); Retreat: A Way Forward (Finishing Line Press, 2017); and Beyond Paradise: The Unweeded Garden (Main Street Rag, 2020).
His poems have appeared in Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Plainsongs, Xavier Review, Pudding Magazine, Slipstream, Main Street Rag, South Carolina Review, Blue Unicorn, Ponder Review, Anglican Theological Review, Pensive, and other journals.
Retired after teaching writing and literature for four decades in Alabama community colleges, he lives with his wife, Cassandra, in Decatur, Alabama. More info at harryvmoore.com.