Maurice Thomas pauses for a photo with his poetry collection.

Part-time Sparta resident pens book of poetry

Union County native and part-time Sparta resident Maurice Thomas recently published "New River and Other Poems," a book of poetry with color images complied over the course of the last 30 years. As a youngster, Thomas spent his time roaming the family farm and adjacent woods, rivers, and creeks which influenced many of his later poems. He noted that as a master's student at Appalachian State University, he developed a love of the mountains and its people which became a part of his writing.

The semi-retired English and creative writing professor explained what initially drew him to poetry: "I find the best way to teach poetry is to write it, so I started writing…."

He added, "Most people aren't going to read poetry, but they may pick up a book with photographs in it and you trick them into reading some poetry."

Taking a course in graphic design, Thomas became fascinated with what could be done with Adobe Photoshop. It was at that point that Thomas considered pairing his poetry with art.

Thomas remarked, "It was a truly transforming experience and taught me a whole new way of looking at the world. I decided to combine poems I had written over the years with graphic art to create a collection that would appeal not only to poetry readers, but to those who seldom, if ever, pick up a book of poetry."

The collection includes 65 poems and pieces of art which he created himself using Photoshop. Thomas credits local Jeff Halsey with the completion of the final digital files of the book that was put together over the summer.

Some of the poems express Thomas' fascination with history and genealogy. He said the poem "Cherokee Canoe" was inspired by the Reeves family who came to America in the 1600's from Blandford, England, and crossed the New River in the 1790's into what is today Alleghany County. In 2003 when he and his wife Pamela were in London with a student group, the two traveled to the small town of Blandford and found the church where several Reeves were buried in the 1500's. He said these were the ancestors of Enoch Reeves and his wife who are buried in the old Reeves cemetery near New River Golf Course.

When asked to comment on his influences, he mentioned that an aunt—who lived to be 99 and kept everything in a trunk—wrote a poem about the sinking of the Titanic, and that an ancestor dating back to the 1800s kept a diary that he later read. His poem "Great Wagon Road Home" was inspired by the diary and describes the Carolina frontier. The poem received the Hayman America Award from the NC Poetry Society.

Thomas remarked he thought the reason the diarist wrote the daily in the 1800s "was for the same reason people write poetry….A hundred years from now somebody may pick up a book that you've written and that's what always encouraged me."

Thomas continued, "I've always been encouraged to write things down. I put it on paper so it might survive in a digital age when most will disappear." He went on to say that with today's technology and the digital format, the world of publishing is changing rapidly, and anyone can now be published. "If you know anything about Photoshop, you can create your own file, send it to a publisher, get your work published, then do your own marketing."

While "New River…" is Thomas' first published book, his poetry has also appeared in numerous magazines in the past, including "Cold Mountain Review" and "Tar River Poets." In addition, Thomas was published several times in "Poem," a Birmingham, Ala.-based magazine and in "Doors," an anthology of seven poets from Red Dust Books in New York. Thomas had an opportunity to publish his book with a small press publisher in Baltimore, Md., but opted to use publish on demand so that he could have "complete control" over his material, including the ability to give copies of the book to friends and family free-of-charge.

The Book

"New River and Other Poems" is available locally at Imaging Specialists, Buxton Abbey, Blue Ridge Gallery of Fine Art, and as well as the New River State Park.