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has named Minnesota poet John Caddy as the 2012 McKnight Distinguished Artist.

Over the past five decades Caddy has published several volumes of poetry infused with a deep respect for the natural world, and reflective of his Iron Range upbringing. Indeed much of his career combines poetry with environmentalism.

Now a resident of Forest Lake, Caddy's poetry books include 

With Mouths Open Wide: New & Selected Poems

A longtime educator, Caddy was one of the founders of 

Community Programs in the Arts and Sciences, or COMPAS

. He recently retired from Hamline University, where he showed graduate students how to teach environmental education using the arts.

In 1994 Caddy suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. Yet he says his "spirit is more lively all the time." Each morning for the past several years he has combined one of his nature photos with a new poem celebrating gifts received from earth, and 

So we burn. Admit morning, the cold fire pit,

Char lets us last. Sure there's smoke and eye-sting.

Now in its 15th year, the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award recognizes individual Minnesota artists who have made significant contributions to the quality of the state's cultural life, and includes a $50,000 cash award. The McKnight Foundation will honor Caddy at a private reception later this year.

Note: Embers and Char appears courtesy of John Caddy's publisher, 

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

Caddy has published several volumes of poetry infused with a deep respect for the natural world, and reflective of his Iron Range upbringing.

Poet John Caddy named McKnight Distinguished Artist

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