Poem of the Week: Stephen Kuusisto

 

                  

Life in Wartime  

There are bodies that stay home and keep living.

Wisteria and Queen Anne's Lace

But women & children too.

& countless men at gasoline stations.

Schoolteachers who resemble candles,

Boys with metabolisms geared to the future,

Musicians trying for moon effects...

The sky, which cannot expire, readies itself with clouds

Or a perfect blue

Or halos or the amoebic shapes

Of things to come.

The railway weeds are filled with water.

How do living things carry particles

Of sacrifice? Why are gods talking in the corn?

Enough to feel the future underfoot.

Someone is crying three houses down.

Many are gone or are going.

-Stephen Kuusisto

 

Used by permission.

Stephen Kuusisto is a graduate of the "Writer's Workshop" at the University of Iowa. He directs the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University where he holds a Professorship in the Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies. He speaks widely on literature, diversity, disability, education, and public policy.  He is the author of Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and the acclaimed memoir Planet of the Blind, a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year".  Steve has made numerous appearances on programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline NBC, National Public Radio and the BBC. His most recent book, "Letters to Borges" has just been published by Copper Canyon Press.

 

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