In loving memory of award-winning author Víctor Martínez/En memoria del autor galardonado Víctor Martínez

In loving memory of award-winning author Víctor Martínez our teen club, Un Libro Mil Mundos (One book a Thousand Worlds) would like to share this poem in his honor. Our students are currently reading his YA novel Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, which won the 1996 National Book Award for young people’s literature for his semi-autobiographical novel about growing up Mexican American in California’s Central Valley. Martínez was the first Latino author to be awarded this prestigous award. We are saddend by the loss of a great author/poet who has inspired us and many other teens who have read this novel and his work.
  
 
WHAT IS A POET ?
 
in homage—
Víctor Martínez
(1954-2011)
 
by Francisco X. Alarcón
translated by the author with Francisco Aragón
 
a question roaming
here and there—a cat
in a darkness so complete…
 
a door opened
—no lock no key—
to face the sea…
 
a lamp
that burns
from dusk to dawn
 
a voiceless voice
that is at once joy
and rage
 
a persistent monk
who in keeping
words lit turns
 
himself into
a living torch
lighting the world...
 
an unending gaze
keeping vigil over
the fate of others
 
an honesty so fierce—
not ceasing till it gets
at the naked truth
 
a perennial presence
that confronts
any given absence
 
a conversation
without end
between life and death
 
a butterfly flitting
a humming bird hovering—
here but never bound…
 
when a poet dies
his poems unfurl
inside your chest
 
February 20, 2011
  
 
¿QUÉ ES UN POETA?
 
en homenaje
a Víctor Martínez
(1954-2011)
 
por Francisco X. Alarcón
 
una pregunta
rumeando como gato
en total oscuridad
 
una puerta abierta
sin cerrojos, sin llaves
que encara al mar
 
una lámpara
encendida durante
toda la noche
 
una voz sin voz
que es alegría y
enojo a la vez
 
un monje tenaz
que prendiéndoles fuego
a las palabras
 
se inmola él mismo
para darle al mundo
algo de su luz
 
una mirada
que no deja de velar
por los demás
 
una honestidad
tan feroz hasta dejar
desnuda a la verdad
 
una presencia
perenne que desafía
cualquier ausencia
 
una conversación
entre la vida y la muerte
que no tiene fin
 
una mariposa
un colibrí en el aire—
un ser y no estar
 
cuando un poeta muere
sus poemas florecen
en nuestro corazón
 
20 de febrero de 2011