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Independence resident Bob Fisher has had poetry published under the pen name Robert G. Fisher in Present Magazine, The Lyric Poetry Magazine, The Mid-America Poetry Review and Poetry Miscellany. A retired attorney who started out on Wall Street and evolved to teach criminal law before setting up a general practice in Independence, Fisher has avidly read and written poetry for about 10 years.
1 How did you first become interested in poetry? Actually, I was in college, and I couldn’t understand what poetry was all about. I remember going to the professor and saying, “What’s this poetry stuff?” He suggested that I write a sonnet, which I did. He liked the sonnet. I didn’t quite understand why. Then, for 40 years, I wrote prose as a lawyer. I did publish some articles. When I retired, I thought I’d go back to the question, “What is this stuff all about?” In part, I’m just trying to understand what poetry is all about.
2 Of the poets you read, who is your favorite, and why? There are quite a few favorites. I really like Robert Frost because I’m a nature person. I’m a big-time bird watcher, and he’s a wonderful poet about nature. But, I also like a number of the Harlem Renaissance poets – Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. They’re talking about justice and injustice.
3 Where do you gather inspiration for your original poetry, and what is your methodology for writing it? I get inspiration from a variety of places. I’ve been a hospital chaplain for the last 10 years, and I get some there. Some comes from nature. Some comes from my own concern about philosophy and justice. Methodology, an idea pops into my head and I start writing. I do a lot of free verse now. I started writing rhyming poems, and as I’ve come to understand poetry better, I’m a little bit more with the times.
4 How is reading and reciting poetry similar and different to being a practicing attorney? In both cases, you look for truth, and you try to be clear. Certainly, as an attorney, I chose my words carefully and revised and revised until I got it right. I do the same thing as a poet. A good poem often has some ambiguity in it. It invites the reader to take the ideas of the poem and develop them with his own ideas. When you’re an attorney, you want to control what the reaction to your work is.
5 What advice would you offer aspiring poets, both readers and writers alike? Read and write a lot of poetry; that’s easy. There’s just really no way to understand poetry other than to read other poets and to write poems yourself. I’m a little bit unusual because I try to write in a number of different genres in order to understand the genre. Other poets try to find their voice and pretty well stay with what they’ve got.
– Adrianne DeWeese
Independence resident Bob Fisher has had poetry published under the pen name Robert G. Fisher in Present Magazine, The Lyric Poetry Magazine, The Mid-America Poetry Review and Poetry Miscellany. A retired attorney who started out on Wall Street and evolved to teach criminal law before setting up a general practice in Independence, Fisher has avidly read and written poetry for about 10 years.
1 How did you first become interested in poetry? Actually, I was in college, and I couldn’t understand what poetry was all about. I remember going to the professor and saying, “What’s this poetry stuff?” He suggested that I write a sonnet, which I did. He liked the sonnet. I didn’t quite understand why. Then, for 40 years, I wrote prose as a lawyer. I did publish some articles. When I retired, I thought I’d go back to the question, “What is this stuff all about?” In part, I’m just trying to understand what poetry is all about.
2 Of the poets you read, who is your favorite, and why? There are quite a few favorites. I really like Robert Frost because I’m a nature person. I’m a big-time bird watcher, and he’s a wonderful poet about nature. But, I also like a number of the Harlem Renaissance poets – Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. They’re talking about justice and injustice.
3 Where do you gather inspiration for your original poetry, and what is your methodology for writing it? I get inspiration from a variety of places. I’ve been a hospital chaplain for the last 10 years, and I get some there. Some comes from nature. Some comes from my own concern about philosophy and justice. Methodology, an idea pops into my head and I start writing. I do a lot of free verse now. I started writing rhyming poems, and as I’ve come to understand poetry better, I’m a little bit more with the times.
4 How is reading and reciting poetry similar and different to being a practicing attorney? In both cases, you look for truth, and you try to be clear. Certainly, as an attorney, I chose my words carefully and revised and revised until I got it right. I do the same thing as a poet. A good poem often has some ambiguity in it. It invites the reader to take the ideas of the poem and develop them with his own ideas. When you’re an attorney, you want to control what the reaction to your work is.
5 What advice would you offer aspiring poets, both readers and writers alike? Read and write a lot of poetry; that’s easy. There’s just really no way to understand poetry other than to read other poets and to write poems yourself. I’m a little bit unusual because I try to write in a number of different genres in order to understand the genre. Other poets try to find their voice and pretty well stay with what they’ve got.
– Adrianne DeWeese
