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Canadian poet Margaret Avison, who was lauded as a “national treasure” when she won the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize four years ago, has died at age 89.

“Her contribution to Canadian literature was incalculable,” said Joseph Zezulka, an English professor at the University of Western Ontario who met Avison in the early 1970s while she was a writer-in-residence at the university.

During a literary career that spanned over 40 years, Avison twice won the Governor General's Award for poetry: once in 1960 for her debut collection “The Winter Sun,” and again 30 years later for her fourth book of poetry “No Time.” She was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1985.

Born in Galt, Ont., and raised in Regina, Calgary and Toronto, Avison attended the University of Toronto's Victoria College, where she studied English literature. She went on to hold three honorary doctorates. Aside from her poetry, she also worked as a librarian, editor, teacher and social worker.

In 1963, Avison became a “committed Christian,” and her faith often inspired her work.

“She was perhaps one of the great religious poets of this century,” said Zezulka. “Margaret's reputation was international, her work was even translated into a number of languages.”

“It was a private religious conviction,” he added. “She was kindliness itself, she had so much tolerance and charity for her fellow beings, and I think that's the important thing about her Christianity.”

Her cousin, Heather Boyd, called Avison “a formidable intellect and a deeply religious woman.”

“Her place in Canadian literature was driven home to me in the early '70s when she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario and I was an English major,” said Boyd.

“Yet she was also my cousin Marg, an unassuming, thoughtful woman who would share jokes and life's moments gently with us, albeit always with precision and sharp wit.”

In 2003, at the age of 85, Avison won the $40,000 Griffin Poetry Prize for her work “Concrete and Wild Carrot,” which was celebrated as “an occasion of beauty.”

The judges commended Avison for the “many decades she has forged a way to write, against the grain, some of the most human, sweet and profound poetry of our time.”

Avison viewed poetry as a two-way relationship, where she “expected her readers to work as hard reading her poems as she worked at composing them,” said Zezulka.

For those who were able to persist, and truly understand her writings, the outcome was always satisfying, he said.

“The thing with her poetry is that you must grapple with it, it just does not open up, its rewards come only to those are willing to make the effort,” said Zezulka.

“Her poems were not snacks, they were full meals.”

Avison died last week in Toronto. A private memorial service has already been held.