The Poet Lucien Stryk Has Passed

Lucien Stryk came to speak for professor Quinn's poetry class at Rock Valley College in the early 90's. I was there and really got a lot out of the lecture. I was also blown away by this particular poem:

Cherries

Lucien Stryk

Because I sit eating cherries

which I did not pick 

a girl goes bad under

the elevator tracks,will 

never be whole again.

Because I want the full bag,

grasping,twenty-five children

cry for food. Gorging,

I’ve none to offer. I want

to care, I mean to, but not

yet, a dozen cherries

rattling at the bottom of my bag.

One by one I lift them to

my mouth, slowly break

their skin—twelve nations

bleed. Because I love, because

I need cherries, I

cannot help them. My happiness,

bought cheap, must last forever.

NPR reported today that the poet Lucien Stryk has passed. One doesn't have to be from the Northern Illinois region to mourn the loss of this incredible poet.

Lucien Stryk has left us, and we are all worse for it.

Poetry

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