A LANDSCAPE

by Stephen Kuusisto 

A LANDSCAPE

November and the tiny bones
Call for directions.
A darkness. Bitter cold.
Take a walk in the harbor.
A stray dog follows—
He has only one eye
And is expert
In empty spaces.
I talk to myself
Saying something something.
It’s too easy to picture a threadbare life.
This is the day to burn the summer grass.

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 professorship in the Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies. He is a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. His website is StephenKuusisto.com.

An extensive interview with Kuusisto, as well as five more poems of his, were published in the last issue of Unearthed.