I remember a poet who disliked people.
He was always well dressed.
When alone he lived under a bush.
He had a beard. Even “it” didn’t like him.
He wore Italian cowboy boots.
To be charitable: he had grim memories
That leaned beside him at every podium.
**
Prose Poem
I cannot see the great blue heron.
**
Looking into a Tide Pool
Even the blind can do it.
**
May Sarton was one mean woman.
While visiting a small college
I heard her tell a young woman
Who said she loved uniting poetry and dance,
“You my dear are a fraud!”
I’ve never forgotten it.
**
The old guru eats a chocolate brownie.
Soon all the adepts are eating brownies.
I saw it happen.
**
Sometimes when I think of my childhood all I can remember is frost on windowpanes.
**
Sonia in Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky when alone.
ABOUT: Stephen Kuusisto is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”); and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light and Letters to Borges. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Ohio State University. He currently teaches at Syracuse University where he holds a University Professorship in Disability Studies. He is a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. His website is StephenKuusisto.com.
Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey is now available for pre-order:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound.org
(Photo picturing the cover of Stephen Kuusisto’s new memoir “Have Dog, Will Travel” along with his former guide dogs Nira (top) and Corky, bottom.) Bottom photo by Marion Ettlinger
Planet of the Blind 