Already It Is Dusk

By Joe Fletcher

The voices comprising Joe Fletcher’s chapbook "Already It Is Dusk" speak under the fear of death. They are wanderers, renegades, shifty-eyed and quick-minded, brains troubled to near muteness by the blank dumb animal suffering of the worlds they inhabit. And though wounded, weirded-out and often wasted, they move on, must so, through the thickets and spur banks, the bars and mill towns and murmuring forests and chaparral dust, as our guides, the unlucky patron saints of What-Goes-Down. Already It Is Dusk is a theater of leather and mud, a vision of struggle and courage and failure written with lyrical eloquence and a dark matter-of-factness. Onstage, muffled cries arise from beyond the red curtain. A priest slurs through an opening prayer. A robed figure trims the gaslight. And you are suddenly alone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brooklyn Arts Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781936767076

Joe Fletcher

Joe Fletcher is the author of the chapbook, Sleigh Ride, published by Factory Hollow Press. Other work of his can be found at jubilat, Octopus, Slope, Hoboeye, Poetry International, Hollins Critic, MoonLit, and elsewhere. He lives in Carrboro, NC.

Book preview

Already It Is Dusk

Poems by Joe Fletcher

Advance Praise:

James Tate:

Joe Fletcher’s world is so rich in language and dense in experience, I wonder where it all comes from. He seems to have lived a thousand lives, each deep in feeling and insight.

Dara Wier:

Powerful, fully-realized complications, by which I mean accurate demonstrations of the twists and turns a human mind can take, of the serious dark deep dangerous and beautiful kind. This poetry is never slight, often nearly fatal. And it sounds so good.

Michael Earl Craig:

The poems have a dark and old-world feel to them that I love. It is a time when men carry ropes of jerky; a time when cows ride on ships and the children’s heads are dented by doctors’ tongs. ‘Don’t go too near yourself,’ we are warned. ‘You are not who you say you are.’ This is the voice of our guide. And he has his gloved hand on your shoulder.

Already It Is Dusk

© 2011 Joe Fletcher

Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-936767-07-6

Print ISBN-13: 978-1-936767-00-7

Published in The United States of America by Brooklyn Arts Press at Smashwords

Brooklyn Arts Press, 154 N 9th St #1, Brooklyn, NY 11211

www.BrooklynArtsPress.com; [e-mail]

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011929334

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means existing or to be developed in the future without written consent by the publisher.

Front cover art/design by Aaron Sing Fox. Overall design by Joe Millar.

First Ebook Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for

Reviews for Already It Is Dusk

[Alisha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is interesting because I enjoyed his writing style and there were good quotes. But, I didn't actually like any of the poems. I feel like a lot of sentences were out of place and I could never create a picture or an emotion or anything in my head or heart and that's. . .kind of a problem.