About

Ira Joe Fisher

A prolific writer and poet, Ira was awarded two regional Emmys for television writing. His poetry has appeared in Poetry New York, The Alembic, The New York Quarterly, Entelechy International, Diner, Ridgefield Magazine and the anthology Confrontation. He is the author of Remembering Rew, a poetry chapbook and two full-length collections of verse, Some Holy Weight in the Village Air and Songs From an Earlier Century. Ira has a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from New England College. He has taught poetry, communications and broadcast history at New England College and he lectures and teaches at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, Western Connecticut State University and Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

Ira regularly performed in the long-running musical The Fantasticks from 1995 to 2000. In the summer of 2003, he performed the role of “Henry VIII” in the musical The Prince and the Pauper at New York City’s Lambs Theatre. That summer, Ira also performed with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Connecticut’s Ives Center. He appeared as “Monsignor Buckley” in The Garden of Dromore at the New York University Hot Ink Festival. Ira had a role in the film “California Girls” with Robbie Benson and in the ABC daytime drama “Loving.” He appeared for many years on the CBS Television Network’s Early Show.

Some Holy Weight in the Village Air "...small town poems with a somber air of resignation.  With careful attention to meter and reverence for the natural world, Fisher will remind readers of Robert Frost, as he highlights village eccentricities and the bland inevitability of life, as well as the beauty of trees, wind and other seasonal phenomena.
Thoughtful and hushed imagistic works.  (Kirkus Reviews) 

The poems in Some Holy Weight in the Village Air reveal that he is indeed one of today's most gifted and talented poets. He has a rare ability to piece together words into poems that are both readable and eloquent, as in the poem "At the Height of Their Mischief.” He writes: “Starlings mobbed the sky / and looked like laughter. / They flew too fast to follow; / it was good to watch from below / as they burst above the day.”

Some Holy Weight in the Village Air will appeal to any boy who has ever prowled a creek, and any girl who has ever learned every word to a song. It will capture the attention of anyone interested in reading beautiful and technically magnificent poetry, as well as those who enjoy deep and stimulating meaning.  Brian Douthit, Five Stars (Clarion ForeWord Review)