Only Bread, Only Light

Stephen Kuusisto

With this, his first collection of poetry, Stephen Kuusisto (author of the memoir Planet of the Blind) explores blindness and curiosity, loneliness and the found instruments of continuation. Exploiting the seeming contradiction of poetry’s reliance upon visual imagery with Kuusisto’s own sightlessness, these poems cultivate a world of listening: to the natural world, to the voices of family and strangers, to music and the words of great writers and thinkers. Sensually rich and detailed, Kuusisto’s poems are humorous, complex, and intellectually engaged. This collection reveals a major new poetic talent.

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ISBN: 9781556591501

Format: Paperback

Serenade

What can I tell you
Except that birds
Came to me that summer
As if I were St. Jerome
Instead of the crippled kid
Who spent his time alone.

I was a muddy rat.
I spoke across the water.
I moved with my hands.

Blackbirds whistled
Through the dry creek bed.
The cemetery called the purple martins.

The boy I speak of
Went from fence to stone
Very like a bird–
And like a bird
He would listen
In the tall grass.

When the birds came
He rose through the tatter of clouds.
The boy with two faces, he flew through clouds.
The kid who couldn’t see, he flew right up.
His parents came, they banged on pots and pans;
They hoped to get him back to earth.
But they were far below
And the boy was in the sky of verities.

The child had passed away,
Had arrived at a kind of end,
A bird place,
Where life hangs on a spin.

You can live in matchless grace.

About the Author

Stephen Kuusisto directs The Burton Blatt Institute’s interdisciplinary programs in disability at Syracuse University where he holds a University Professorship. He is the author of the memoirs 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. His newest memoir, Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey was published by Simon & Schuster. A graduate of …

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Reviews

“Ultimately, Kuusisto’s meditations on his condition, and gratitude for the mind’s inner eye, remind readers that vision takes many forms, and that feelings of being lost and alone are intrinsic to human nature.” —Booklist

“A powerful writer.” —New York Times

“I have been searching for some of his poetry since I read Planet of the Blind. He is a gifted and sensitive writer.” —Erin Malone, from a “Reader Comment” card

“In [Kuusisto’s] poems, works of spare and musing beauty… each word is set as carefully on the page as a footstep blindly taken in an unknown place… Music is a constant presence, and the tenuousness of being, a feeling made all the more daunting by sightlessness, is a steady preoccupation. But Kuusisto’s poems are exquisitely visual, too, even as the poet moves ‘through space / With hands outstretched.'” —Booklist

“Though [Kuusisto] calls himself ‘a fool of the night seasons’… these poems… are filled with light, with careful and startling images, and with a fine appreciation for the senses.” —Foreword

“Copper Canyon is putting out some stunning verse… and Only Bread, Only Light is a wonderful addition to their catalogue. It’s a fine book, full of Kuusisto’s careful writing, love for images and supple, capable language.” —Ithaca Times

“Kuusisto’s poetry is spare, reflective, with an intense quality of listening to the world.” —Splendid E-zine