A Great Confusion: Joe Fiorito

I am heading north
although it feels as if I am
heading south

but I am coming from
the south. I am
distraught.

I am trying to avoid
all those places
you are not.

(Vehicule Press)

In his third collection of verse, Quicker Than The Eye, Joe Fiorito continues to craft short, sharp poems that define the harder edges of urban life. His principal tools are a photographer's eye for detail, and a musician's ear for the sound of the human voice. Now, in Quicker Than The Eye, Canada's poet of the streets turns his gaze inward, writing about the influences of early love, family tragedy, and the search for meaning in a world where "the desolate things are mine." A master of spare, razor-sharp language, Fiorito manages to strip sentiment from memory in order to find tenderness and enduring truth on the margins of the city. He has never written more austerely or more beautifully. (From Vehicule Press)

Joe Fiorito is the author of eight books. He has won the Brassani Prize for Short Fiction in 2000 and the City of Toronto Book Award in 2003. He has written two previous poetry collections: City Poems and All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Been.