Thanks to My Teachers, Part 3: Charles Lynch

As a student at Baruch College in New York City, I had the deep pleasure of attending a Twentieth Century American Literature class of Charles Lynch, a poet and doctoral student. He was only ten years older than I but knew so much about poets of the Beat, Confessional, Student, and Black Consciousness movements. In Charles's class (we remain on a first-name basis today), I read Robert Creeley's "I Know a Man" and "The Language"; Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," "A Supermarket in California," and "America"; Nikki Giovanni's "Adulthood" and "Nikki Rosa"; Sylvia Plath's "Daddy," and Diane Wakoski's "Blue Monday."

Charles eventually became a tenured professor at Jersey City State College, from where he will soon retire after a lifetime of teaching excellence. I am indebted to him for the wisdom he imparted, his interest in my life, and his enduring friendship.