W.S. Merwin, poet and environmental activist, has passed away: NPR

W.S. One of the most respected and most enduring poets of America, W.S. Merwin is dead. Merwin's poetry is known for its mystery and wonder, and has twice been named American poet. He has also won a National Book Award and two Pulitzer Prizes.

Merwin died today in his sleep at home in Hawaii. His death was announced by his publisher, Copper Canyon Press. He was 91 years old.

Merwin wrote a lot and for a long time. At the age of 5 in New Jersey, he wrote hymns for the Presbyterian Church where his father was a pastor. When he was ready to enter university, the young Merwin had obtained a scholarship to Princeton, where he had also worked in campus dining halls. He then went to Europe, where he became a translator and soon a poet.

His fellow poet Edward Hirsch remembers the first time he saw the photo of Merwin.

"I thought he looked like Orpheus," he says. "Her physical beauty was really surprising, always."

But according to Hirsch, by the time Merwin published his fifth book, he was desperate – worried about the planet, the nuclear problems and Vietnam. He wanted his writing to be more urgent, so Merwin decided to remove punctuation.

"Suddenly, using punctuation was like nailing words on a page," says Hirsch. "He was looking for something like movement and lightness of speech, and then, while he was more involved in the environmental movement, his poems were beginning to take root in the Earth. One of the most astonishing things about this work is the moment he became a poet of old age, he has in a way transformed himself into a poet of praise. "

This happened on the Hawaiian island of Maui. In the 1980s, Merwin found a used pineapple plantation and worked with his wife, Paula, to restore the rainforest. His day started early with tea, birds, wind and maybe scribbled poetry on the back of an envelope. The afternoon was spent bringing back the palms.

He talked about his project in the 2014 documentary Even if the whole world burns. "These tall, beautiful palms," he says, "I planted them almost 30 years ago, I do not think anyone thought they'd grow up here, but they're looking at home now."

Merwin found inspiration in his conservation work and in his Maui home. He wrote the poem "Place" about his time there:

The last day of the world
I would like to plant a tree

Why
not for the fruit

the tree that bears the fruit
is not the one that was planted

I want the tree that stands
in the earth for the first time

with the sun already
descent

and water
touch his roots

in the land full of dead
and the passing clouds

one by one
on his leaves

"He has zealously kept this precious and peaceful oasis of solitude," said Naomi Shihab Nye, a Merwins friend who often traveled to Maui.

Nye first read Merwin's poetry in 1969, before becoming a poet and teacher. A private school for girls has already asked her to give a week-long workshop using the work of a single poet. She chose Merwin, then the girls wrote letters of thanks, explaining that it was the sense of mystery they really liked.

"It was the attitude of the girls," says Nye. "How is it possible that some mysterious poems help us to know more about our own lives?"

Merwin's home in Maui, where he raised more than 2,000 trees, will be set aside as part of the Merwin Reserve.