Francisco Alarcón saw life as a poem — a single, continuous verse.
“He said he would never use a period until he died,” said his sister Esthela Alarcón. Each day added a line or stanza; only death would end it, her brother said.
The L.A.-born Chicano poet and factory laborer who worked his way from adult school, East L.A. College and Cal State Long Beach to Stanford University died Friday of stomach cancer in his Davis home, still eschewing that final punctuation. He was 61.
from here.
How do we get our students, who squander every opportunity we make for them as they sleepwalk while avoiding life, to be more like this guy? He was clearly wide awake, alive, and hungry.
ReplyDelete(The answer isn't that I should be making better or different opportunities, since they are exactly what my students tell me they want.)
He was clearly wide awake, alive, and hungry.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Not to mention someone who had a lot to contribute to current conversations about immigration, poverty, and opportunity. Definitely a loss. I'm sorry, Dutch. At least he will live on in his work (both texts written and students taught).
The answer may be that there's nothing we can do. This guy is one of those rarest of creatures: a successful poet. Those need to be self-motivated, much like successful astronomers.
Delete