All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Been

All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Been, Joe Fiorito's second collection, establishes him as the preeminent chronicler of people in extremis.

Drawing on the precision and unsentimentality that have become hallmarks of his poetry, Fiorito creates uncompromising mini-narratives about addiction, failed rehabs, incarceration, demeaning jobs and homelessness; much of it derived from nearly two decades spent as a newspaper columnist covering daily life on Toronto's streets.

In poem after poem, Fiorito's exact word choices, cold-eyed details and crisp internal rhymes mete out moments both beautiful and harrowing: "her little finger curls a bit/she cut a tendon when she slit/ her wrist; she'd clenched/her fist."

All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Been is a moving exploration of brokenness by one of Canada's most indispensable writers. (From Vehicule Press)

JoeFiorito 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.City Poems, his first book of poetry, was published in 2018.

• 29 works of Canadian poetry to watch for in spring 2020