Tom Meschery's work is full of light, hope, and a generosity of spirit. Whether writing about his family, his students, or his career as a professional basketball player, it is Meschery?s grace with language and respect for tradition that make these poems fully alive.

Nothing We Lose Can Be Replaced

Tom Meschery

What emerges from this three part collection is a remarkable history. Beginning in revolutionary Russia, these poems chronicle political abuses, social turmoil, and the saga of Meschery's family, struggling through Siberian cold and two world wars, to land in America. Meschery's basketball career in the National Basketball Association takes shape in part two, as the son of Russian immigrants becomes a hard-nosed NBA big man. The poems show the game changing over generations, as Meschery gives voice to greats like West, Chamberlain, Bird, and Jordan, along with those fame left behind, like Maurice Stokes, paralyzed by an on-court accident. Finally, we follow Meschery into the high school classroom, where a new generation struggles through victories and defeats. In all their arenas, Meschery's poems celebrate rare moments of human excellence, witness all-too-frequent shortcomings, and maintain a textured focus on the detail of individual lives set in larger social and political contexts.

The Author

Born in Manchuria, China of Russian immigrant parents, Tom Meschery was raised in San Francisco. He graduated from St. Mary's College in 1961 and was named to the All-American team in basketball. Drafted in the first round by Philadelphia, he played for ten years in the National Basketball Association for the Golden State Warriors and the Seattle Supersonics. After coaching in the old American Basketball Association, he attended the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1974. He had a brief return to coaching as an assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers, then moved to Truckee, California where he and his wife Joanne, a highly regarded novelist, have raised three children. Tom now teaches Advanced Placement English at Reno (NV) High School and creative writing at Sierra College.

1999, 60 pages
1-891033-15-8, $12.00