JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: Why I Write

By Jim “Pappy” Moore

I write to find out what I think. I know of a number of people who have been credited with the thought, but it has been around a long, long time. My writing began in 1990 when I was forty. At first it was poetry. Here was my first poem.

Poet Lariat
by Jim Moore

For many years
I tried to bury it,
This compelling urge
To be a Poet Lariat.

Now with my words
I weave this twine,
and notch my thoughts
within each line.

And as I twirl my literary rope,
To lasso right, and truth, and hope.
I must remember to be clear –
Forget the bull, aim for the steer.

Copyright Jim Moore, 1990.  All rights reserved.

Others followed, most of which I have not published. It was not until this century I began writing in earnest. I did a couple hundred political cartoons using a nom de plume, and published in both newspaper and online comics seen on the internet around the globe. I invented a sardonic young character and wrote daily cartoons about politics and cultural matters. I did that for a year or so, then decided to write instead. 

I began by writing my earliest memories. I did this because after a coughing spell brought on by allowing my Diet Coke to trickle down into my windpipe. I literally drank eight Diet Cokes a day back then.  I passed out very briefly, but enough to feel a slight but sharp pain my head. For a few days I did not have my usual super great memory and in truth that worried me. I did not have a stroke, but I could have had a stroke, and that thought made me develop a plan of action. I quit smoking cigarettes. Dropped them never thinking about smoking them again. I quit alcohol, because I knew it would bug me if I drank without smoking. Old habits die hard. 

Because I feared losing my memory in the future, and perhaps wondering about my own life, I decided to sit down and write it, starting with my earliest memories. My life story unfolded as I remembered and typed it out. 

After a year of writing my story, I sat back and thought about what I should do next. I decided to start writing, mostly about my personal experiences and their meaning. I started with newspapers. I decided to own my copyright for everything I wrote, and that no publication could alter my words, whether in the title or the body. So that’s what I have done the past thirty-four years. I’ve been published over a 1000 times. Every week I sit down and write something for publication. For almost twenty years. You might think I would run out of ideas, but I don’t. For every piece I’ve published there’s one I never finished or didn’t like well enough to publish.

My friend Mike Capps is a superb story-teller. We have been telling each other tales since we were kids. It’s an art form, and we learned it from men who have gone on before us. If you want to be an East Texas Storyteller, you have to work to get it right. There’s a point to be made, and you reach it in a crescendo which weaves and bobs until the finale. At the end there may be a chuckle or a nod of approval. 

I write because it amuses me. If no one but me likes it, oh well. I try to write things I hope others will enjoy reading for five minutes. To go with coffee. Or breakfast. Or the bathroom.

Copyright 2024, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.