Poetry. With his fourth collection of verse, THE CREEK AT THE END OF THE LAWNS, Fisher delves into the minds and lives lived in both a village and a city. Trees and streets and haunted hills figure in these poems. How does one negotiate each day's path as well as the shadows of night? These poems suggest a person--a soul--doing so, or dying in the trying. Fisher's well-crafted narrative and lyric verse creates a conversation which draws the reader into an investigation of both life and self and assures that each reading of this book is a rare verbal and visual treat to be enjoyed again and again.

Robert Frost, Ira Joe Fisher's and my maestro, famously said that writing poetry without rhyme or meter was like playing tennis with the net down. Fisher sets his nets about half-mast--his rhymes are mostly internal and his cadences entirely his own. I love this book (great title, by the way) for its specificity, its deep noticing, its passionate spirit, and a heart so full it seems about to explode.--Thomas Lux