Local author reaches for the moon

Local author William Dozier got inspiration for one of his recent books by simply looking at the moon.

As a self-professed Luna lover he has written many poems inspired by the moon. One night in 2018, after gazing at the moon, he decided to write a collection of poems about the experience. With his book, “Lunar Lamentations” he has devoted 21 poems to Luna, focusing on the full moon of each month (13 in 2018) and each of the moon’s eight phases.

He has always been an avid reader, and his love of writing has spanned his whole life. He’s kept diaries and journals throughout his life. When he was young he began hand-writing poetry and stories. He has written and self-published 10 books of poetry (all under the nom de plume WLLM) with submission also accepted and published elsewhere.

When his mother died of lung cancer in 2011 and his father died of lung cancer in 2015, Dozier began writing, publishing and performing poetry in earnest. He has been reading poetry in the Kansas City area since 1997 and hosting or co-hosting shows with others. His poetry has been shown at the Nelson Atkins Museum thanks to The Whole Person’s Expression Art Exhibition three years in a row.

He also loved to paint, but after swerving to avoid hitting a deer, he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in 2001, which caused paralysis in his left arm and hand with acute neuropathy and head trauma.

“Dealing with the varying, continual pain causes drawing straight lines to sharply curve or stop as the rest of the body does its dance dealing with it,” Dozier said. “I have only one hand, so having something holding what is being painted or worked on is required, where before I could just use the other hand and not my feet. I’ve always been an artist in one form or another, yet my disability is more conducive to writing and therefore I have given in to that. The words just write themselves sometimes, myself, poetically but the scribe.”

Before his accident, Dozier also liked 2D and 3D painting, woodworking, carpentry, writing, reading/studying anything, and nature. He had always found creating or buying sculptures/miniatures/random things and painting and tweaking them to be enjoyable.

“I always liked the idea of being a polymath, a jack of all trades but master of none, a hermit at heart too, but not as bad as Diogenes, knowing we humans require human connections/interaction),” Dozier said. “I finally settled on IT as I like doing things with my hands and mind, then suddenly my reality changed again, becoming the one-armed dead man and poet I am. That includes hosting and co-hosting poetry events/readings/shows too, running Steel’s Variety Show for over a year until their building was sold.

“Even during quarantine, I alone, and with others did online shows, hosting Poetry at 11 myself and co-hosting Dystopian Verses Online Open Mic On Zoom with the Dark Word Society Midwest I and a friend co-founded a few years back. I plan to contact the Platte City Mid-Continent Public Library again about their ReadLOCAL initiative too, hopefully hosting poetry readings there and the other branches. My poetry has been shown at a few of them already in Liberty and elsewhere.”

Although he is limited to the use of just one arm, and yard work has become limited, he still loves growing flowers. His sister, Doris Dozier is also disabled, but helps with planting the annuals and taking care of the array of flowers at their home.

“The basic set-up of the yard is how it has been since our parents were alive if I remember correctly, adding and updating as need or desire be,” Dozier said. “I mostly take care of flowers in the greenhouse and backyard (including lotus and lily pond/pool), walk the dogs, cooking, cleaning, writing, reading, looking after the place and living life in general,” Dozier said. “I’ve always a fan of flowers and nature.”

Both of the siblings love seeing nature do its thing and provide food for the bees and the hummingbirds.

“While I prefer things like the roses, datura, mint, sunflowers, etc. (especially night bloomers and anything considered sacred/especial), if anything different is desired we’ll add its beauty to the rest,” Dozier said. “While not a minimalist, I like to let the natural fauna do its thing, changing things up some as desired. We’ve been around flowers since children, even taking flower decoration classes as a family.

Dozier loves the freedom and universal nature of writing and plans to write many more books. Due to his disability, writing is now one of the few things he can still do.

“Writing is now one of the only things I loved doing that I can do both before and after becoming disabled, or do in general for that matter with neuropathy, and the inability to do something as simple as clap, or hug a loved one,” Dozier said. “Words are seemingly magical in many cultures among the cultured and animal alike, from spells, incantations and lamentations into Westernized Neuro-Linguistic Programming and even computer programming.”

Some of his favorite writers include William Blake, Nietzsche, Wilde, Sylvia Plath, Yeats, Rumi, and Langston Hughes to name just a few.

“All that said, as a self-publisher, Charles Dickens is especially important I think,” Dozier said. “A Christmas Carol was self-published after his publisher rejected it.”

For more information, Dozier has a page at (facebook.com/WilliamEdmondDozier). His Goodreads page is (goodreads.com/author/list/17089842.WLLM) and @WilliamEdmondDozier.