Former poet laureate Van Duyn dies (was first women poet laureate)

[SaintLouisBlues]

Mona Van Duyn, the nation's first female poet laureate and the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and numerous other literary awards, died of bone cancer Wednesday at her home in University City.

Ms. Van Duyn, who produced nine volumes of poetry in her 83 years, was considered a master at mining for meaning in everyday life. "Her poetry begins domestic and ends universal," is the way her late good friend and equally renowned poet Howard Nemerov once put it.

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Ms. Van Duyn had several sharp observations about the role of poetry in modern culture. In an interview in 1992, she observed that when it came to poetry, "Nobody buys it, nobody wants to publish it, and practically nobody reads it." At the same time, she noted that people were turning out in huge numbers for poetry readings and that an astounding number of people were signing up for poetry writing programs.

She liked the trend even if it resulted in some bad verse. "It seems to me an innocent thing to do . . . and in some way a very sweet activity," she said. "Instead of wanting to go out and make mergers and destroy companies, why not sit and write poetry?"

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