Stephen Kuusisto was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1955. He received a BA from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an MFA from the University of Iowa. He is the author of the poetry collections Letters to Borges (Copper Canyon Press, 2013) and Only Bread, Only Light (Copper Canyon Press, 2000). He is also the author of several works of nonfiction, including Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey (Simon & Schuster), which is forthcoming in 2018. Kuusisto, who was born legally blind, is a disability rights activist and has served as a cultural diplomat for the U. S. State Department. He currently teaches at Syracuse University in New York.
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Learning Braille at Thirty-Nine
The dry universe
Gives up its fruit,
Black seeds are raining,
Pascal dreams of a wristwatch,
And heaven help me
The metempsychosis of book
Is upon me. I hunch over it,
The boy in the asylum
Whose fingers leapt for words.
(In the dark books are living things,
Quiescent as cats.)
Each time we lift them
We feel again
The ache of amazement
Under summer stars.
It’s a dread thing
To be lonely
Without reason.
My window stays open
And I study late
As quick, musical laughter
Rises from the street
And I rub grains of the moon
In my hands.
From Only Bread, Only Light (Copper Canyon Press, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Stephen Kuusisto. Used with the permission of the author.
From Only Bread, Only Light (Copper Canyon Press, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Stephen Kuusisto. Used with the permission of the author.
Stephen Kuusisto
Stephen Kuusisto is the author of the poetry collections Letters to Borges (Copper Canyon Press, 2013) and Only Bread, Only Light (Copper Canyon Press, 2000).