Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet's Journey By Stephen Kuusisto

The memoir Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey by Stephen Kuusisto takes us on a passage through a poet’s struggle before coming to terms with his blindness, and his personal growth afterwards. This story demonstrates the importance of partnership, and how a working dog named Corky made Kuusisto’s life easier, and allowed him to be more free. Something that was interiging to me throughout reading this text was the shift in Kuusisto attitude. While it wasn’t subtle by any means, it certainly wasn’t obvious by any means either. We see him grow from someone who sticks to a routine and doesn’t go new places, to someone who is traveling the country advocating for guide dogs and speaking at different schools and events. With my background in

On page sixty-three, Kuusisto wrote, “I’d always been a tippy-toe walker. Now I was putting everything into my feet and for the first time I felt vital in relationship to my footfalls…a god-driven invitation to living full forward.” What we see here is Kuusisto realizing his full ability with Corky. His ability to live a full life from now on, as he will no longer feel like he needs to walk on egg-shells or follow shadows of people. This line is the first step of freedom for Kuusisto, as he realizes how much his life is about to change. We can also account this line to a shift in psychology in Kuusisto, as he steps into a new chapter of his life with blindness, but now he has a companion who will be with him through

Formerly I’d relied on poetry alone to grant me hints about whatever we mean by “life,” and now I was feeling all my own joy and melancholy flowing together.” Here we see something that leads to further prove that Kuusisto’s life as improved since getting Corky. Kuusisto never comes outright to say his life was undesirable before Corky, but the use of the phrase “just beginning” in this line gives way to the idea that his life was dull before Corky. Corky has not added an element of excitement to his life, but has taught him a way to appreciate the life he has. I believe this is where we start to see the impact Corky has had on Kuusisto, and how Corky has improved his views of the world, as well as Kuusisto’s mental