 The second (expanded) edition appeared just months before his death and has been called one of the most influential single-author books in English-language haiku.Virgilio became well known after a review on National Public Radio, and appeared often on that network as a guest commentator.He was a member of Camden's Sacred Heart Church and helped to found the Walt Whitman Center for the Arts and Humanities (now the Cooper Library in Johnson Park), where he also served as its artistic director and poet-in-residence.