Stephen Kuusisto

ODE TO THE FUTURE PERFECT

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Mornings are when I'm happiest
So I hope to die around sun rise
There may be some book
A possible chariot
Some white gardenias
Or I might be out walking
With the last gods of summer
Behind me like stray dogs
Hoping I'll have something for them

After so much is said and the candles are low…

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I'm no match for the godless nights
And if there are gods I'm no match for them either
I build a fence badly, tear it down after dark

**

I used to love Wallace Stevens
I was young

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Thus the dog bursts into my poem
Follows me home

A mild wind follows the dog

**

Up river where a stand of birches leans
Walking with a spent candle in my coat

A BRIEF ESSAY ON ROMANTICISM

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p>All morning the restlessness of happening,
Greedy seconds, opera minutes
Until I want to beg the wind for a home.
We live in some nameless state
Falling continuously, falling
Illuminated and fitful.
Late winter, the earth
Smelling of mother darknesses
And I've no means to share this news
Save under the canopy of a poem
Where I'm writing very small.
Somewhere I think I might be burning.

Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey was published in 2018 by Simon & Schuster. You can visit his website and blog at: www.stephenkuusisto.com.