Hayden Carruth (1921-2008)

I join with all the staff and board at the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine in expressing my profound sorrow at the death of Hayden Carruth, who died last night at his home in Munnsville, New York. His contribution to American poetry and to the life of this country was extraordinary.
Graves
by Hayden Carruth
Both of us had been close
to Joel, and at Joel's death
my friend had gone to the wake
and the memorial service
and more recently he had
visited Joel's grave, there
at the back of the grassy
cemetery among the trees,
"a quiet, gentle place," he said,
"befitting Joel." And I said,
"What's the point of going
to look at graves?" I went
into one of my celebrated
tirades. "People go to look
at the grave of Keats or Hart
Crane, they go traveling just to
do it, what a waste of time.
What do they find there? Hell,
I wouldn't go look at the grave of
Shakespeare if it was just
down the street. I wouldn't
look at—" And I stopped. I
was about to say the grave of God
until I realized I'm looking at it
all the time....
Hayden Carruth was the author of more than thirty books of poetry and winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Carruth was editor of Poetry magazine from 1949-1950. His last collection of work was Toward the Distant Islands, published by Copper Canyon Press.