Bulletin from the low light
by J. Fisher
Written in the low light glow of a borrowed laptop, J. Fisher’s bulletin from the low light leaves the blinds open and lets the world that lives on the streets below his window slip in. To the shadows that find that window he gives voice as blogs posted where there is enough light to see them. Frontenac’s first blog book from fisher’s popular blog of the same name is an electronic experiment — a seamy and uncompromising take on modern city street life and the author’s own demons. Poems from the blog have been taken up by publications as far afield as Germany’s Mon(u)ment and as close to home as Victoria’s Street Newz.
Reviews
The collection concentrates mostly on the streets of a downtown core with a few scenes thrown in from the poet’s rural home town. The poems are occasionally humourous, always honest and raw and brutally fearless. The honesty and experience of the poet’s voice becomes an activism on behalf of the souls that make up the street. He moves from full participant to latent observer in a matter of words. ~ Robyn Maharaj, Prairie Books Now
J. Fisher’s poetry, repulsive and compelling, describes life as a car wreck. bulletin from the low light is ugly and uncomfortable — the fix when the fun is lost. J. is a busy writer, a jaded drunk and a fearless documenter of his world. These poems are self-aware and charged with politics and grief. Don’t buy this book if you want to feel good at its end; do buy it, however, if you’re interested in the heart-felt work of a writer willing to represent the invisible and ignored, the human face of lousy bars, street life and addiction. The work of J. Fisher is situated at the intersection of f***-all avenue and nothing street and it’s definitely worth a visit. ~Nancy Jo Cullen
