New Jersey’s first poet laureate, Stern wrote about his childhood, Judaism, mortality and the wonders of the contemplative life
Gerald Stern, one of the US’s most loved and respected poets, who wrote with spirited melancholy and earthly humour about his childhood, Judaism, mortality and the wonders of the contemplative life, has died. He was 97.
Stern, New Jersey’s first poet laureate, died on Thursday at Calvary Hospice in New York City, according to his longtime partner, Anne Marie Macari. A statement from Macari, released on Saturday by publisher WW Norton, did not include the cause of death.
There is a sweetness buried in my mind
there is water with a small cave behind it
