W.S. Pulitzer Prize Winner Merwin, Poet and Resident of Peahi

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Poet W. S. Merwin has turned an abandoned 18-acre pineapple field in Peahi into a palm forest with more than 2,000 plants. He died Friday at the age of 91 years. LARRY CAMERON photo

W.S., a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Merwin Prize, former poet of the United States, died Friday in his sleep at his home in Peahi, where he lived for about four decades.

He was 91 years old.

Copper Canyon Press, of Port Townsend, Washington, publisher of Merwin's book, announced the death of the poet, literary translator, environmental advocate and farmer of his beloved palm forest in East Maui.

"Although we have lost a great friend, the loss of American poetry is even deeper," Michael Wiegers, his longtime writer at Copper Canyon Press, said in a press release. "From the stylistic inventions he has presented to the catalytic force of his translation work and international poetics, his influence on American poetry is unparalleled."

Merwin has published more than 50 books, including "The shadow of Sirius" who won the Pulitzer for poetry in 2009; "Migration: new and selected poems" Winner of the 2007 National Book Award; and "The bearer of ladders" Pulitzer Poetry winner in 1971.

Paula Merwin is represented with her husband, the famous poet W.S. Merwin. Ms. Merwin died in March 2017 at the age of 80. Her husband, a two-time Pulitzer Prize poet, died Friday in their home in Peahi. He was 91 years old. Picture from TOM SEWELL

His literary translations include "Selected Translations, 1948-2011" published in 2013; "The haiku collected from Yosa Buson" as well as verses by Pablo Neruda, Osip Mandelstam and Dante Alighieri.

Merwin's poems are often grappling with the deep power of memory, landscape, and a revolutionary commitment to language, the Copper Canyon Press press release said. His poetry, as well as his life as a poet, was imbued with a moral and political imperative. Indeed, during the Vietnam War, Merwin refused his first Pulitzer Prize and asked that his money be shared between a peace activist, Alan Blanchard. , and the pull resistance movement.

"While Merwin's poems have sometimes touched on the subjects of their time, they remain singular and immediately recognizable in their approach, as they simultaneously introduce a distinctive style into American poetry, devoid of punctuation, full of suggestions, irreducibly universal in its perspective. and often. fabulous in their diction, " the press release says.

Writing in the New York Review of Books about "Shadow of Sirius" Helen Vendler said: "In his personal anonymity, his highly individualized way, his defense of the land and his heartache over time, Merwin became instantly recognizable on the page; he made the most difficult of creations, an accomplished style. "

"W. S. Merwin is one of the greatest poets of our time. He is a rare spiritual presence in American life and letters (the Thoreau of our time), writes the poet Edward Hirsch.

Born in New York in 1927 and raised in New Jersey and Scranton, Pennsylvania, Merwin was the son of a Presbyterian minister. Merwin once said of his development as a writer: "I started writing hymns for my father almost as soon as I could write at all."

Merwin studied at Princeton University and studied with renowned poets R.P. Blackmur and John Berryman.

"Only when I received a scholarship and went to university did I begin to read poetry steadily and try constantly and with constant despair to write it." he said in an interview.

After graduating from Princeton, he settled in Europe and worked as a translator and tutor, first for the Royal Family of Portugal, then in Majorca, Spain, as tutor for Robert Graves' son. , British historical poet and novelist.

He bought an abandoned farmhouse in the rural valley of the Dordogne, in the south of France, and restored it over the years. Many people and places in this region are told in his prose books "Lost highlands" and "The Mays of Ventadorn."

Some of his experiences in France would be integrated into his home in Peahi, including the water catchment cisterns under each building in his home.

In the mid-1970s, Merwin moved to Maui to study Zen Buddhism with Robert Aitken, who encouraged him to buy a bare 3-acre parcel in 1977. He bought two adjacent parcels in 1986 to take his Peahi property to 18 acres. which includes the upper bed of Peahi Creek.

Merwin first tried to restore the native forest to the soil, but found that the soil was depleted of necessary nutrients. The native trees that he planted are dead, but the palms have survived.

His chief gardener, Olin Erickson, said the country was overrun with Christmas berries and java plums, which Merwin ran through and cut by hand.

This landscape invaded by vegetation has been transformed into a forest of 2,750 palms. Merwin has written many poems in his forest, including gardening in his daily life.

"While writing his poetry, he paints his canvas," said Sara Tekula, director of programs for the non-profit organization Merwin Conservancy, in an interview in 2017. The forest is "An extension of his art and vision for the world."

He built his house in the forest, halfway up the slope. Merwin wrote that he remembered John Blofeld and his book on his trips to China in the 1930s, as well as his account of visits to ancient Buddhist and Taoist monasteries. At a turn of the trail, Blofeld was surprised by the sight of a monastery or a temple "As they had grown up out of the mountain," Merwin said.

"What he described seemed to me to be an ideal, and I hoped to have a house nestled in the trees and visible only when a house got there on foot." the poet said.

The cedar house is a pillar and a half-level built in the side of a hill with exposed beams.

Merwin married Paula Dunaway in 1983 and together they brought life back to Peahi country. She was a children's book publisher, according to the Merwin profile published in 1995 by The New York Times. The couple met for the first time in 1970 and again 12 years later at a dinner in New York.

Her care for her husband and his attention to details of their life and relationship helped Merwin "To produce some of the greatest poems of the last half-century" conservation said in 2017.

In recent years, she took care of her husband, who lost his sight because of macular degeneration, said the conservatory. She would read to him to keep him informed of the events of the world.

She died in March 2017 in Peahi with Merwin at her side. She was 80 years old.

The couple created the nonprofit organization The Merwin Conservancy prior to his death in 2010 to preserve and protect their home and landscape and to promote the poet's literary heritage and his goal of creating a scholarship program. Merwin to support poets, writers and artists. The plans include an artist-in-residence program that would use the house.

The reserve will keep the house, the land and the palm forest now that Merwin has passed. The land is protected from future developments by a conservation easement signed in 2014 with the Hawaiian Island Land Trust. Matthew Carlos Schwartz, son of Paula Merwin, is President of the Conservation Council.

In 2015, Merwin and his work, both poetic and environmental, were the subject of the documentary film. "Even if the whole world burns" and his poems and palm groves were part of an exhibition at the New Museum of American Writers in Chicago in 2017.

"William Merwin leaves this life after practicing and expressing without fear and grace his concern for this world," said Sonnet Coggins, executive director of conservancy. "In doing so, he touched the lives of countless people and enriched our lives immeasurably. In his spirit, we will see our work at the Merwin Conservancy with the same sense of wonder that has brought out his poetry and garden and embody in each of our actions the same integrity with which he lived.

The last original collection of poems by Merwin, "The time of the garden" was published in 2016 and two retrospective collections, a 50th anniversary edition of "Lice" and "The essentials of W.S. Merwin," were published in 2017.

He is survived by his sister Ruth Moser, along with his half-brothers Schwartz and John Burnham Schwartz.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers or cards, donations to W.S. Merwin's honor will be awarded to The Merwin Conservancy. His website is merwinconservancy.org.

In the poem "For the anniversary of my death" Merwin wrote:

"Every year, without knowing it, I spent the day

When the last lights are going to show me

And the silence will be established

Tireless traveler

Like the ray of a star without light

Then I will not do

To find myself in life as in a strange garment

Surprised to the earth

And the love of a woman

And the immodesty of men

As written today after three days of rain