['City' from Collected Poems can] be said to be a set of ways in which a responsive sensuous man fights off aristocratism in a levelling and mediocre environment…. What is so warmly present is Fisher's sense of responsible living possible for the artist who sees and whose eyes hold excitement for him, as he uses the technological and human environment, and, as McLuhan would say, makes it visible. (p. 13)

The penetrating mood of 'City' is not … nostalgia but of exploring for relevance to the business of living, working, loving, family….

The Ship's Orchestra is an assemblage, erotic and musical (Fisher's experience with bands and combos penetrates the work). The prose sentences and paragraphs belong to that kind of writing which varies its pitch and tone and cannot simply be called 'poetic prose' or some other such academic slotting. It is certainly a fine instrument…. Like listening to jazz...