Duyn, Mona Van 1981
Friday, April 24, 1981
Before you leave her, the woman who thought you lavish,
whose body you led to parade without a blush
the touching vulgarity of the nouveau-riche
– Mona Van Duyn, “Advice to a God”
Read this article honoring Mona Van Duyn from the Beltway Poetry Quarterly:
Andrea Carter Brown on Mona Van Duyn
In the spring of 1992, the Library of Congress broke precedent, naming Mona Van Duyn its first female Poet Laureate.
From a new peony,
my last anthem,
a squirrel in glee
broke the budded stem.
I thought, where is joy
without fresh bloom,
that old hearts’ ploy
to mask the tomb?
– Mona Van Duyn, “Sonnet for Minimalists”
Listen to Mona Van Duyn read some of her poetry:
