It takes a creative mind to pluck moments from time and capture them with the written word. It takes a different type of discipline to face down a blank piece of paper and let the mind wonder where it will.

John Hoppenthaler has mastered both. A Washington resident and professor of creative writing and literature at East Carolina University, Hoppenthaler’s third book of poetry, “Domestic Garden,” recently won the 2016 Brockmann-Campbell Award for best book of poetry by a North Carolinian in 2015. The award is given annually by the North Carolina Poetry Society.

That he is both a North Carolinian and a poet would have come to a surprise to a younger version of himself — the New Yorker and Yankees fan who wanted to be a sportswriter when he grew up. The love of language was natural and it was college, and some poetry professors, who turned his thoughts in the direction of poetry, he said.

“I liked it. I could do it. It interested me, and I’ve just never stopped,” Hoppenthaler said.

“Domestic Garden,” published by Carnegie Mellon UP, follows two previously published collections, “Lives of Water” and “Anticipate the Coming Reservoir.” It’s described by the publisher as a look at the remnants of the American dream: “What devotion might mean and look like in our time is at the book’s heart. The poems, written in a variety of styles, offer testimony and uncover, row by row, what remains viable in a garden they hope to resurrect.”

Hoppenthaler does not settle for a single style of poetry. Rather, he goes where the words direct him.

“It keeps it interesting. I don’t get bored,” Hoppenthaler said. “Sometimes, just switching forms or styles will help me get a poem written, and I think it’s more interesting for the reader too, to give them some variety.”

He attributes the freedom from a defined style as the product of “an eclectic nature.”

“My musical tastes, my reading tastes, my food tastes — I don’t have any one particular style. The book has a handful of formal poems, free verse, narrative poems. You’ll find a wide variety of form.”

Readers will find sonnets peppered with Haiku in a single poem, “Anna’s Garden.” They’ll also find snapshots of typically eastern North Carolina experiences: “The Weather Down Here” is set in the drive-thru lane of Washington barbecue restaurant Hog Heaven.

It’s the ability to create poetry from such everyday places and occurrences that defines Hoppenthaler as an artist and poet.

“I think most of us kind of go through life with blinders on. We don’t see the amazing things around us,” Hoppenthaler said. “It’s a totally different process of writing than prose, a research paper or something like that. It’s more a process of discovery.”

His process, he said, takes two different forms: a mapping out internally of a poem before a single word is written or free association, in which thoughts and ideas flow naturally and he whittles away at words until the work is created, much like a sculptor would with a chosen medium.

“Basically, it becomes this process where I don’t really know where it’s going to go, what it’s about. That’s the more fun way. … If I sit down trying to write something, generally it turns out badly,” he laughed.

While Hoppenthaler has received past awards, the Brockmann-Campbell Award is an acknowledgment of his work as not only a poet, but as a North Carolinian.

“This prize somehow helps me, you know — that I’m part of North Carolina,” Hoppenthaler said. “I’m very honored.”