March 11, 2010. Mona van Duyn was born in 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa, and died in 2004. Between 1974 and 1978 she and her husband edited \”Perspective: A Quarterly of Literature.\” She served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1992-1993. Letters From a Father (3) The birds are eating and fighting, Ha! Ha! All shapes and colors and sizes coming out of our woods but we don\’t know what they are….