Richard O. Moore
Richard O. Moore (February 26, 1920 – March 25, 2015) was an American poet associated with Kenneth Rexroth[1] and the San Francisco Renaissance.[2]
His earliest poetry was published in 1945 in
Upon retirement in 2000, Moore returned full-time to poetry.[6] Writing the Silences edited by Brenda Hillman and Paul Ebenkamp, includes a selection of his poetry from 1946–2008.[7]
Biography
Richard Owen Moore was the only child of Harold Ellsworth Moore and Frances Elizabeth (
In 1934 the family joined the western diaspora in search of a healthier climate and the possibility of a job. Four years later, Frances Elizabeth Flinn Moore died of Tuberculosis and her son, by then a teenager and a writer of wistful poetry, lost all trust in God and State. He became determined to make his own way free of family and of any and all allegiances. Berkeley and the University of California was the obvious place to start.
Once at Berkeley, Moore announced that "poetry is my vocation." With a friend,
This period came to an abrupt end when he was expelled from the University for failure to complete courses for an entire semester. Again, he found himself alone. Overnight his supposedly pacifist friends, members of "
At the end of World War II, Moore, together with
Moore applied for and was granted readmission to the University. Other students in his class were Robert Duncan (whom Moore had known earlier through Pauline Kael) and Jack Spicer. The return to Berkeley coincided with the very infrequent publication of Moore's poetry, particularly in Circle Magazine.
On April 15, 1949, KPFA went on the air. The first three voices were: Ed Meece (chief engineer), Lewis Hill, and Richard Moore, presenter for the first program: Anglo-American Folk Ballads. During this period Moore retained his connection with the Rexroth circle, and it was he who persuaded Kenneth to undertake what became a celebrated series of ad lib monologues.
Moore left KPFA and
Moore returned to KQED in 1961 with the aim of producing documentary films for national
In retirement with his wife, Ruth Moore, in a family-built house near Point Arena on the Northern California coast, Moore began to assemble poems from five decades, and in the process kindled a reconnection with the literary world. At the
A second volume, Particulars of Place, edited by Hillman, Ebenkamp, and Garrett Caples, with an introduction by Cedar Sigo, published April 2015 from Omnidawn and is largely composed of poems written after his first book. His poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Poetry, Volt, Redwood Coast Review, and Amerarcana. He also privately published a number of chapbooks including A Selection for Ruth (1997), China Diary (2012), Outcry (2014), and In Passing (2015).
Poetry
"A Selection for Ruth" - 1997 – privately printed, not for sale.
"Writing the Silences" edited by Brenda Hillman and Paul Ebenkamp, University of California Press, Spring 2010[12]
Although in 1949 Moore received the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry for the best unpublished verse submitted by an undergraduate, it appears not to have encouraged him to seek publication of his poems. The challenge of supporting a growing family, plus a continuing interest in radio and television programming, left little time for what he has described as "the secretarial work" of assembling and submitting poems to a publisher. Moore's media career covers fifty years, from KPFA in Berkeley in 1949 to his retirement from KTCA, Minneapolis-Saint Paul in 2000. Although the last eight years were spent as the CEO of Twin Cities Public Television he is probably best remembered as a filmmaker.
It is worth noting that two of Moore's precedent setting documentary series involved writers. USA: Poetry in 1965 featured the following poets: John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, William Everson, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Koch, Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, Frank O'Hara, Charles Olson, Ed Sanders, Anne Sexton, Gary Snyder, John Wieners, Philip Whalen, Richard Wilbur, and Louis Zukoksky. In 1975, The Writer In America series included Robert Duncan (a second film), Janet Flanner, John Gardner, Ross Macdonald, Wright Morris, Toni Morrison, Muriel Rukeyser, and Eudora Welty.
As a filmmaker Moore's interests were not limited to writers. He secured the funding, produced, and directed documentaries on many subjects including the status of black youth in San Francisco; a film on Cuba and Fidel Castro; films on the photographer Dorothea Lange; a biography of Duke Ellington; a film with Merce Cunningham and John Cage; and a docudrama with Tom Wolfe.
Filmography
Photography: The Incisive Art, with Ansel Adams (1960).
Anatomy of a Hit, with Vince Guaraldi (1964).
The Messenger from Violet Drive, with Elijah Muhammad. (1965).
Under these Trees. Dorthea Lange (1965). With Phil Greene.
The Closer for Me. Dorothea Lange (1965). With Phil Greene.
Report from Cuba (1966).
USA: Poetry, a series of ten films on American poets (1966).
Monterey Jazz Festival (1966).
Losing Just the Same (1966).[14]
The Long Walk, the Navajo nation (1967). With Phil Greene
Duke Ellington, Love You Madly (1967).
A Concert of Sacred Music, Duke Ellington (1967).
California: the place for no story (1969). With director-cinema photographer Phil Greene
Assemblage: Merce Cunningham and John Cage, Ghirardelli Square (1968).
The Writer in America, a series of eight films with novelists, short story writers, and poets (1975).
Eudora Welty, a series of readings by Eudora Welty.
On Death and Dying, with Dr. Willard Gaylin, the KTCS series Hard Choices (1980).
The Cities of China, location director only. (1980).
Going Somewhere: the story of Route 66. KTCA (1982).
Other media projects
National Center for Experiments in Television, directed by Brice Howard . . The San Francisco Mix, a series of films by young directors. T.E.A.C.H. directed by Don Roman and Cliff Roberts. TV production training for minorities. Alive from Off Center, KTCA series produced by John Schott.
Media image
For a biographer Moore's practice of various professions can be confusing. Is he a poet, an ex-dancer, a radio and television voice and image, a filmmaker, a TV executive, a peace activist, a family man, a withdrawn loner? Perhaps the best answer is, "None of the above." Yet a single thread runs through all of Richard O. Moore's "incarnations:" he began as, has continued to be, and remains a poet. He is not an academic, a critic, nor can he be identified exclusively with any group of poets. There is an obvious irony in the fact that Moore's poetry would likely have disappeared without notice had it not been for the insistence of Brenda Hillman. When asked about this he agreed, but added, "You know, poetry is what had kept me going. It has saved my life."
References
- ^ A Life of Kenneth Rexroth, Linda Hamalian, W.W. Norton and Company, 1991
- ^ Staff, Harriett. "RIP Richard O. Moore". poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ Current: February 3, 1997 - "KQED made its mark by making programs."
- ^ Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 26, 1990
- ^ View — The Magazine of Television Programming, December 11, 1989
- ^ Marin Magazine, Life at the Redwoods, December 2008
- ^ Berkeley, UC. "Lunch Poems – University of California Berkeley". berkeley.edu. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
- ^ Young Robert Duncan, Ekbert Faas, Black Sparrow Press, 1983
- ^ Preface to "Writing the Silences," Brenda Hillman, University of California Press, 2009
- ^ Pacifica Radio — the rise of an alternative network, Matthew Lasar, Temple University Press, updated edition, 2000
- ^ View a selection of KQED Film Unit productions from this period online: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/7366.
- ^ University of California Press "Writing the Silences"
- ^ - "Take This Hammer"
- ^ - "Losing Just the Same" on line