I Was Blown Back

“Norman Fischer is aware that even if ‘words are free of their intentions,’ it is difficult to free ourselves of our intentions for them and allow the poem to find its way. This is one of the many paradoxes regarding poetic speech ( and poetic silence) that reverberate at the core of his work. The two distinctive sequences that form I Was Blown Back explore the elusive, even ungraspable, nature of memory, perception and personhood with moving immediacy,a nd with a modesty of tone that cloaks a striking acuteness.”

–Michael Palmer