Letters to Borges

“Poetry carves a topiary garden out of dust,” writes Stephen Kuusisto in his second collection of poetry, Letters to Borges. In his blindness, Kuusisto “carves out his own garden” writing to Jorge Luis Borges, a blind writer as well, with synesthetic visuals and imaginative description. Kuusisto writes from different cities, altering and shifting them, unrestrained by time or concreteness. Each one in turn becomes his own city depicted for Borges as a traveler journaling to a distant friend. Laced among these artful letters, Kuusisto includes fragments of his past, earnest and humorous divagations, elegies for poets, musicians, and friends while always retaining a sense of place. For Kuusisto, blindness is no debilitation, but instead an opening through the unperceived.