Grit

by Corey Mesler

From the foreword by editor Laura Mr. Mesler's work has a feeling of history residing within. Spirits flutter here and there, telling of fairy tales and of that which once was. It is this juxtaposition of past presented in minimalist form which speaks of the poet's place in history. His work is not only accessible, but relatable as well.
The act itself of reading poetry is tremendously intimate. Mr. Mesler's work here lends itself to this intimacy with its immediacy. There is no pretense here, but rather a quiet invitation to breathe and drink in.

Genres: Poetry

38 pages, chapbook

First published February 17, 2009

About the author

COREY MESLER has published in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Esquire/Narrative4 Project and Good Poems, American Places (Viking Press, 2011). He has published 9 novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006), The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010), Following Richard Brautigan (2010), Gardner Remembers (2011), Frank Comma and the Time-Slip (2012), Diddy-Wah-Diddy: A Beale Street Suite (2013), Memphis Movie (2015), Robert Walker (2016); 5 full length poetry collections, Some Identity Problems (2008), Before the Great Troubling (2011), Our Locust Years (2013), The Catastrophe of my Personality (2014), The Sky Needs More Work (2014); and 4 books of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations (2009), Notes toward the Story and Other Stories (2011), I’ll Give You Something to Cry About (2011), and As a Child (2015). He has also published over a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. His fiction has received praise from John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Lee Smith, Frederick Barthelme, Ann Beattie, Peter Coyote, Steve Yarbrough, Greil Marcus, among others. With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store in Memphis TN, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He can be found at www.coreymesler.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[Martin Willitts Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grit
Corey Mesler
Amerstam Press, 2008, $8.00


These are very short, tight poems. They are longer than haiku and they are not other short styles I have seen. They are based on the idea of "a little goes a long way." Sometimes the simple things say more than the complex. There simplicity goes back to W.C. Williams Red Wheelbarrow poem, where every word is necessary. If you remove one word, then the whole poem falls apart. There is no need for him to say more, and there is no need to say more in this review except read this book.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the brevity of his work, and I will read more of his poems, but wasn't over excited. However I am using one of his poems in my English class, so obviously he is a skillful writer and worth checking out. I liked his book Talk much better.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My latest. Thank you.