Winter 2004
The Last Great Glass Meat Million
John Thomas Menesini
Six Gallery Press
Macon, GA
112 pp. $13.00 U.S.
In his poetry collection The Last
Great Glass Million, John Thomas Menesini often does a fine job of showing
the raw and awesome power of the native poetic voice. Generally speaking, the
poet has an innate grasp of rhythmic device, which lends a subtle and compelling
flow to much of his work. Some of the lines bleed poetic truth, especially ones
bearing more complex imagery or language runs. He seems to owe a lot to the jazz
of Kerouac, both in execution and commonplace subject matter—though Menesini
comes off as a bit more cynical, lacking JK’s spiritual fever and
substrate.
Unfortunately, the
collection also shows the customary weaknesses of the native poet as well. The
editing is abysmal. Nary a page goes by without misspellings, inconsistent
punctuation/capitalization (most poems are in lowercase—see our review
of kris kahn’s collection for our attitude on that), and grammatical
blunders—solid blunders, even granting the colloquial approach. The cover
design of the book is low-rent horrid, practically pleading to be rushed to the
remainder bin. At 112 pages, this is a fairly fat collection, but one
that would have been greatly improved by considerable digestion of the matter
within. A tightening and some sharp editing would have gone a long way towards
improving Million. Again, sadly, the rush to print claims another victim;
this latest victim, however, shows incredible potential. If Menesini hunkers
down and examines all the reaches of his chosen craft and language, he could
undoubtedly be an excellent American poet. As things sit, he is the rough
diamond. Hopefully, faceting
awaits.
