Roy Fisher was born in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1930 and has been publishing poems since the 1950s. The changing cityscape of postwar Birmingham is an important influence in his work. His collected poems The Long and the Short of It is published by Bloodaxe. His latest collection, Slakki, comes out in October 2016. Fisher worked as a lecturer and a jazz musician for much of his life. From 1971 to 1982 he taught American Studies at Keele University. ‘Hypnopaedia’ was written in 1989. ‘The Man With the Blue Guitar’ referred to in the poem is a well-known work by the American poet Wallace Stevens.
‘Hypnopaedia’ is from The Long and the Short of It: Poems 1955–2010 (Bloodaxe Books, 2012). It is reprinted here with permission.
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