Ruth Stone, an award-winning poet for whom tragedy halted, then inspired a career that started in middle age & thrived late in life as her sharp insights into love, death & nature received ever-growing acclaim died in Vermont.
Stone, who for decades lived in a farmhouse in Goshen, died Nov. 19 of natural causes at her home in Ripton according to her daughter Phoebe Stone while surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.
Widowed in her 40's & little known for years after, Ruth Stone became one of the America's most honored poets in her 80's & 90's, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" & being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "What Love Comes To." She received numerous other citations, including a National Book Critics Circle award, two Guggenheims, a Whiting Award, the Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award for the state of Vermont, Pushcart Prizes, & the Shelley Memorial Award.
She was born Ruth McDowell in 1915, the daughter of printer & part-time drummer Roger McDowell.
Stone was not pious & was quoted ♥ "I am not one/who God can hope to save by dying twice" but she worshipped the world & counted its blessings. In "Yes, Think," she imagines a caterpillar pitying its tiny place in the universe & "getting even smaller." Nature herself smiles & responds:
"You are a lovely link
in the great chain of being
Think how lucky it is to be born."
Stone, who for decades lived in a farmhouse in Goshen, died Nov. 19 of natural causes at her home in Ripton according to her daughter Phoebe Stone while surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.
Widowed in her 40's & little known for years after, Ruth Stone became one of the America's most honored poets in her 80's & 90's, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" & being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "What Love Comes To." She received numerous other citations, including a National Book Critics Circle award, two Guggenheims, a Whiting Award, the Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award for the state of Vermont, Pushcart Prizes, & the Shelley Memorial Award.
She was born Ruth McDowell in 1915, the daughter of printer & part-time drummer Roger McDowell.
Stone was not pious & was quoted ♥ "I am not one/who God can hope to save by dying twice" but she worshipped the world & counted its blessings. In "Yes, Think," she imagines a caterpillar pitying its tiny place in the universe & "getting even smaller." Nature herself smiles & responds:
"You are a lovely link
in the great chain of being
Think how lucky it is to be born."
Ruth Stone, an award-winning poet for whom tragedy halted, then inspired a career that started in middle age & thrived late in life as her sharp insights into love, death & nature received ever-growing acclaim died in Vermont.
Stone, who for decades lived in a farmhouse in Goshen, died Nov. 19 of natural causes at her home in Ripton according to her daughter Phoebe Stone while surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.
Widowed in her 40's & little known for years after, Ruth Stone became one of the America's most honored poets in her 80's & 90's, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" & being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "What Love Comes To." She received numerous other citations, including a National Book Critics Circle award, two Guggenheims, a Whiting Award, the Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award for the state of Vermont, Pushcart Prizes, & the Shelley Memorial Award.
She was born Ruth McDowell in 1915, the daughter of printer & part-time drummer Roger McDowell.
Stone was not pious & was quoted ♥ "I am not one/who God can hope to save by dying twice" but she worshipped the world & counted its blessings. In "Yes, Think," she imagines a caterpillar pitying its tiny place in the universe & "getting even smaller." Nature herself smiles & responds:
"You are a lovely link
in the great chain of being
Think how lucky it is to be born."
Stone, who for decades lived in a farmhouse in Goshen, died Nov. 19 of natural causes at her home in Ripton according to her daughter Phoebe Stone while surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.
Widowed in her 40's & little known for years after, Ruth Stone became one of the America's most honored poets in her 80's & 90's, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" & being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "What Love Comes To." She received numerous other citations, including a National Book Critics Circle award, two Guggenheims, a Whiting Award, the Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award for the state of Vermont, Pushcart Prizes, & the Shelley Memorial Award.
She was born Ruth McDowell in 1915, the daughter of printer & part-time drummer Roger McDowell.
Stone was not pious & was quoted ♥ "I am not one/who God can hope to save by dying twice" but she worshipped the world & counted its blessings. In "Yes, Think," she imagines a caterpillar pitying its tiny place in the universe & "getting even smaller." Nature herself smiles & responds:
"You are a lovely link
in the great chain of being
Think how lucky it is to be born."
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