Antwone Fisher (film) - Who Will Cry For The Little Boy?

Who Will Cry For The Little Boy?

"Who will cry for the little boy, lost and all alone?

Who will cry for the little boy, abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy? He cried himself to sleep.

Who will cry for the little boy? He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy? He walked the burning sand.

Who will cry for the little boy? The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy? Who knows well hurt and pain.

Who will cry for the little boy? He died and died again.

Who will cry for the little boy? A good boy he tried to be.

Who will cry for the little boy, who cries inside of me?"

- Antwone Fisher, Who Will Cry For The Little Boy?

The poem recited in the film joined other poems Fisher had written in a book called “Who Will Cry For the Little Boy?” Fisher states he was inspired to compile his poems after attending a lecture given by Maya Angelou. Angelou pointed out poetry as a way to pull ourselves from suffering and thus gave Fisher the push to create his book.

Fisher states in the Foreword section that no one had ever told him to write poetry but that he just did it for pleasure. He states

“... I find that writing poetry allows me to be whatever I want to be. Even when I had never been in love, I could write about what I hoped it would be once I found a love of my own. If I felt alone in the world, as I often did, I could write about how I had to be there for myself, because at the time the reality was that I was all I had. What poetry gives me is truth.”

- Antwone Fisher, Who Will Cry For the Little Boy?

Fisher says he drew the strength to write from his fellow sailors and wrote poems for them when they requested. But Fisher gives a special acknowledgement to Blue, a prisoner at Terminal Island where Fisher worked as a prison guard, for his inspiration to enroll his poems in a poetry contest.