Poet & Palm Grower W.S. Merwin passes away at 91

[Hillizard]

https://merwinconservancy.org/2019/03/pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-w-s-merwin-passes-away-at-91/

"In the mid-1970s, Merwin moved to Maui to study Zen Buddhism with Robert Aitken, who encouraged Merwin to purchase a denuded parcel of land on the island. He would build his home there and soon after, met his wife Paula Dunaway. The two attentively replanted their plot of land in the Pe’ahi Valley on the north shore of Maui, Hawaii. Slowly transforming a 'wasteland' one sapling at a time, into the thriving 19-acre palm forest that it is today, Merwin remained a dedicated and treasured member of the environmentalist community. The couple later established a non-profit organization The Merwin Conservancy in order to preserve and protect their home, and its biodiverse landscape that includes over 3,000 palms, as well as other rare and endangered flora. In 2015, Merwin and his lifetime of work, both poetical and environmental, was the subject of the documentary film, Even Though the Whole World Is Burning."