Liberian Literary Magazine
Author Interview 2
Spotlight Author
RICHARD WILSON MOSS
Liberian
Literary
Magazine conducted an
interview with
Richard Moss, a poet, a
lover of nature and word;
a cool guy .
LLM: First, we would like to
thank you for granting
this interview. Let us kick
off this interview with you
telling us a little about
yourself…. Tell us a little
about yourself
Well, I have written an
entire book about myself,
an
autobiography,
Northspur, and having
written such, tend to tire
of talking about my life
anymore.
However, I have lived a
life of passion with
interruptions of complete
boredom
and
the
necessity of supporting
myself and my family. I
dropped
out of high
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
school, joined the navy
when 18, married at 19,
and afterwards attended
nearly two years of
college, leaving that to
help support and rear my
two children. I have
earned no certificates of
education and pursued
no true career. Nor did I
chase
traditional
publication of my work.
A lack of self confidence,
which I yet continue to
indulge, and distaste for
the idea of competition
in any of the arts, has
prevented
the
entertaining of any of
these common goals.
I have worked untold
menial jobs throughout
my life to get by. Retired
now, at 63, I live on social
security
and
write
constantly.
Why writing?
I have no idea. I wrote my
first poem at age 12.
From then on I found
writing poetry satisfying
and quite effortless at
times.
Everything else in life
seemed much more
difficult and troublesome.
When writing poetry, I
always felt unbothered,
left alone, to explore this
garden of Eden within
oneself. Perhaps I write
out of sheer laziness.
13
What books have most
influenced your life or
career most?
Many, too many to mark
here. Always favored
George Orwell's' Down
and Out in London and
Paris and Henry Miller's
'Tropic of Capricorn.'
Also Celine's 'Death on
the Installment Plan'.
Percy Shelley and TS Eliot
are two of my favorite
poets and have had
great influence on my
own work as well as the
philosophy book of my
father’s, 'The Second
Book of Proverbs.' by
Phillip Allen Moss Sr.
How do you approach
your work?
There is no set approach.
Things occur to me in the
ongoing process of daily
routine life and when
allowed,
I sit down and expound
on these themes, or upon
metaphors I discover that
best
express
such
themes.
What themes do you find
yourself
continuously
exploring in your work?
The infinite most often
undiscovered landscape
of the human spirit. And
its end.