CARACAS, Venezuela - Eugenio Montejo, a Venezuelan poet and essayist who won the 2004 Octavio Paz prize, has died. He was 70.

The poet's publishing house said he died of natural causes.

Montejo's poetry is known for its rich texture and was published in numerous books in Spanish. His work also reached a wider audience thanks to the 2003 film "21 Grams" by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

In one scene, Sean Penn's character quoted a line from a 1988 poem by Montejo. It reads: "The earth turned to bring us closer. It turned on itself and in us, until it finally brought us together in this dream."

Montejo was a literary director at Monte Avila Editores in Caracas. Some of his books include "Elegos" and "Muerte y Memoria."