Refuge(e)

Refuge(e)

We are all alien to some degree - to this earth, to our countries, communities, families, friends. We are all separate and apart, misunderstood, trying to communicate, surrounded by foreign languages, seeking refuge where we think we'll be safe. Refuge(e) explores this experience in all its manifestations. The mood is emotionally turbulent - high, low, shaky, bold, furious, resigned, long-suffering, long-denied, with moments of great empowering joy as well as grand mystical peace. Ultimately, it celebrates how we can come into our own when fleeing, and post-flight, mature through the crucible of strange and unfamiliar circumstances. Refuge(e) is a work of poetry and fiction. Characters and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The Author's Inspirations

The author's inspirations include: The interior life; the maturing of the spiritual and psychological self; the complexity of human community; the search for inspiration and love; Theodore Roethke's idea that every line is its own poem; creating sparks by juxtaposing words; working from grids of favorite words; the deepening of meaning through repetition; dream states; ordering poems into a chronology; fractured narratives with flipping perspectives; the simplicity and immediacy of the couplet; the various impacts of the short line; and the flow experience produced by space on the page.

David Paul Mesler

David Paul Mesler is a classically trained jazz musician and educator known for his 45 albums on ECR, his 15 major Hollywood films, his performances for 1000s of events including for 4 sitting US Presidents, leading the jazz band at Benaroya Hall for 10 years, his 100s of original art songs and chamber works, and his 28 years of teaching music at Seattle Central and North Seattle Colleges. As a pianist, David's film credits include The Blind Side (2009), Warm Bodies (2013), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), Battlefield Earth (2000), and The Wrong Guy (1997), as well as the Emmy Award winning television features for Disney, Eloise at the Plaza (2003), and Eloise at Christmastime (2003). David himself was nominated for a Northwest Regional Emmy in 1992. He is a prolific maker of experimental films and digital art, and has been writing poetry since age 16.

© DAVID PAUL MESLER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
www.davidpaulmesler.com