One beautiful, early spring day in New York, I exited Grand Central an crossed 42nd Street walking downtown on Park Avenue. In the midst of the morning rush, several blocks in, I hear an enthusiastic voice calling out to me,  “Well hello there, it’s nice to meet up with a fellow white cane traveler!”  I smile and turn to reply, “Hello to you, it is lovely to meet you, and your cane.”  I introduce myself and Edward Hirsch does the same.  As a point of reference, he mentions the guest essay he wrote for The New York Times, in 2023. I say, “Of course, I know it well.”  The title of the piece, “I Am Going Blind, and I Now Find It Strangely Exhilarating,” is a hook. It compels you to find out, what does that mean?

Ed’s vision loss is caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP) an inherited retinal disease. His eyesight was changing at what seemed a relatively slow and manageable pace, until a couple of unfortunate incidents indicated it was time to consider a new approach. His first step is to reach out to Lighthouse Guild, in New York for help. The confirmation of legal blindness opens a whole world of programs and services, including an advocate, low vision specialist, ophthalmologist, computer specialist, cane training and home visits. Ed says “Daily life has a renewed delight and vigor,” and “Now that I signal my disability with a white cane, I find that I have tapped a well of visible kindness.”  And he enjoys stopping other cane users (like me) on the street to say hello. 

So you see, it’s learning to live better with vision loss that Ed finds exhilarating. Two years later, he follows with, “How I Learned to Be Blind,” for the Wall Street Journal, confirming that his exuberance is holding.

Edward Hirsch was born in Chicago in 1950. He is a renowned poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller How to Read a Poem and Fall In Love With Poetry.. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems, which brings together thirty-five years of work, and Gabriel: A Poem, a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called “a masterpiece of sorrow.” He has also published five prose books about poetry. His newly published memoir My Childhood In Pieces, a stand up comedy and Skokie elegy. Since 2003, he has served as the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.