Poet Baron Wormser died on October 7 at his home in Montpelier. A prolific poet, Baron was the author of 11 books of poetry. He was also an accomplished novelist and memoirist with 12 books of prose. From 2000 through 2006 he was Poet Laureate of Maine. After moving to Vermont, he and his wife Janet lived in Cabot, then settled in Montpelier.

According to poet and friend Dawn Potter, he died “only weeks after being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. He died at home, quietly, with his wife and children and sister present. It was, his wife tells me, a good death.”

Baron was a member of the Poetry Society of Vermont and led two workshops for PSOV, both in Quechee, in May, 2019 and October, 2021. He also judged several PSOV contests. Several of our members attended Saturday morning poetry workshops at his home on Loomis Street. Baron was incisive, imaginative and fun to work with. He’ll be dearly missed.

He said in the title poem of his book The History Hotel (2023): October—you can feel time running down, the race run. / Will this happen to me?