Poet. Born in Arlington, Massachussets, he was among the most influential American poets of the latter half of the 20th century and the 1999 winner of the Bollingen Prize, poetry’s top honor. Rejecting the strict metric schemes of the academics, he captured emotions with a concise, conversational style that assumed an intimacy with readers. Attended Harvard before working for the American Field Service in Burma and India. He published more than seventy books of poetry and prose and collaborated with musicians and painters throughout his career. Awarded the Lannon Lifetime Achievement Award, the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the Bollingen Prize in 1999. He served as New York State Poet from 1989 to 1991. He taught at many places from the historic Black Mountain College in North Carolina (he was also rector there) to a coffe finca in Guatamala. From 1989 he was Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetry and Letters at State University of New York, Buffalo, where he taught for 37 years. In 2003 he joined the faculty of Brown University. Cause of death: pneumonia; in Odessa, Texas (bio by: Fred Beisser)