Jason Lawrence Moore

I'm Jason Lawrence Moore, thank you for visiting my page! Warrior Carrying Water Anthology is a book of 500 rhyming poems and short stories. Each poem is one page long and organized into five categories: Black in America, Love & Life, Politics & Religion, Art & Media, and Everything Else! I included a table of contents for each section and an index in the back, so that the reader can jump around and find different poems as they choose.

This book is my autobiography mixed in with some humor, frustration, social commentary, pop culture, history lessons, and even a little scripture! There are over 25 music videos that you can watch (via QR code and YouTube) too! My goal was to write a book like nothing I had ever read or seen before. It’s not perfect, but I feel that I have successfully achieved my goal.

The eight short stories included, each take place over 100 years ago, in a violent America. To counter daily race riots and massacres that terrorized Americans just one generation removed from slavery, a network of black folks with supernatural powers teamed up with an indestructible indigenous warrior, to thwart several powerful groups of ‘Northern and Southern Supremacists’ so evil, and so determined to maintain the status quo of yesteryear, that their legacy and spirit still haunts America’s media and politics in the present day.

Warrior Carrying Water has over 30 illustrations by some very talented artists, including the cover art, Warrior Carrying Water, painted by my brother, John G. Moore Jr. A Warrior Carrying Water is a symbol of peace - a gift with which writing this book has blessed me over the past few years.

For years, I have been trying to write a poem that best captures the fear, rage, and confusion that I felt when I was 15 years old, and a police officer pointed a gun at me, just a few yards away from my house! Here it is:

When a cop stopped and frisked me

The moment that I relive most

The day that still haunts me, like a ghost

I’ve tried for years to write about it

Alone at night, as I sit

Recalling every detail of the time

When a police officer assumed that I had committed a crime

As the cop car passed by, I heard the squawking of a dispatcher

'Be advised, the suspect, a young black male with a green jacket, is a purse snatcher.’

'Freeze! Turn around with your hands up!' shouted the cop

Stunned, time slowed, as my paper bag dropped

I could see my house, just a few yards away, should I run?

As I slowly turned around, the only thing that I saw was a gun!

The cop continued to shout, but I couldn't understand his commands

He holstered his gun and then patted me down with his hands

I answered all of his questions about where I had been

To the corner store, I pointed to the bag on the ground, and then

He picked up my bag of Twinkies, crushed them, and just put them in my hand!

When he left, I took a big breath, and just said damn...