Meet Ridgefield’s new Poet Laureate, Ira Joe Fisher
After a unanimous vote by the Board of Selectmen, Ira Joe Fisher succeeds Barb Jennes as Ridgefield’s next Poet Laureate. Jennes served a three-year tenure as the inaugural Ridgefield Poet Laureate
A long-time Ridgfielder, known for his community involvement and support, Ira Joe is an Emmy-winning broadcaster, actor, poet, and teacher. He currently teaches poetry and creative writing at UConn, Mercy College, and Founders Hall.
Here, we sit down with our Poet Laureate to learn about his passion for poetry and his new community role.
You call poetry “the universal language which touches all hearts”. Can you explain?
The same can be said for music …for song. Poetry is song. It invites you and me to reach for emotion and to find it. Certainly, other creative, artistic pursuits offer an invitation: ballet, an art exhibit, the symphony, a rock concert, a rock collection. But they need a stage or a stadium. Poetry needs only a chair or a soft knoll in the shade of a maple tree. And an eye and a heart and an ear to “hear” the magic of words, the weaving of rhythm, the ensuing order of whimsy or drama. Poetry isn’t something to teach or learn. Poetry is something to encounter, to experience. Read it, hear it, be touched by it.
Any Ridgefield event or occasion you are particularly excited to honor with your poetic prowess?
Winter (how it's chill and snow warm a heart), a history-noting event: Martin Luther King Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, February (Black History Month), Spring (and its greening and softening of the air), April (National Poetry Month), World Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Summer (and all it's splashing from lakes to rain and the sizzle of burgers), Independence Day, August (still smiling, but looking over its shoulder for the coming of Autumn), Labor Day (and autumn’s arrival, unpacking its bags of colored leaves), November (remembering the end of one war and lifting hope for the end of all war), giving thanks on a Thursday, lighting Ridgefield's Seasonal Lights, December (and its sweet melodious holidays), and the return of snowy, chilly, breath-feathering winter).
Do you have a favorite original poem (or two) you can share with us?
"Vita Beata"
A wren speaks
of yesterday’s just-cut
grass. A finch chortles
at the climbing sun.
Day cannot bear the weight
of any more night.
It lightens up its load.
The morning moon bends
before the church of earth
and weaves a breeze
through hazel leaves
still young enough
in foliage and faith
to think they will
never die
ever.
"The Stars"
We must forgive ourselves
for being human.
And thank the stars
we are.
How dull to be a god.
Some people believe in you.
Most don't.
Being here is the stuff of faith.
Anything you wish I asked?
Yes. I wish you had asked for three poems. Being an entertainer, I love attention. Being a poet, I love ...attention.
* For fun, we included a clip of Ira Joe back in the 80s delivering the weather forecast for ABC Eyewitness News where he is deemed: "the weatherman who could write backward". Can he write poetry backward too? We'll find out!
