Harrison Smith, of the Washington Post, Remembers Marie Ponsot

We recently shared an obituary published in the New York Times honoring the life of Marie Ponsot. Ponsot passed away last week at the age of 98. At the Washington Post, Harrison Smith celebrates her with an obituary that begins with her first poetry collection, True Minds, published by City Lights in 1956 "as part of the same pocket-size series that featured Allen Ginsberg’s 'Howl'," right before Ponsot "set aside her career to raise her seven children." More: 

Divorcing from her husband, she supported the family as a translator, writer for radio and television, and college professor, carving out at least 10 minutes each day to write. While changing diapers and preparing dinners, she scribbled lines of poetry on notebooks, napkins and the backs of envelopes, ultimately filling the drawers of her desk with completed poems.

But for years she insisted she was not a “poet,” merely a person who wrote poetry. “I never had a strong desire to publish a book,” she told the New York Times in 1999. “I had a strong desire to write poems.” She added: “I see now that was queer. I didn’t realize that is a big part of what a poet has to do. I was too busy to sit around and think about it.”

Learn more at the Washington Post.