cada árbol every tree
un hermano a brother
cada monte every hill
una pirámide a pyramid
un oratorio a holy spot
cada valle every valley
un poema a poem
in xóchitl in xóchitl
in cuicatl in cuicatl
flor y canto flower and song
cada nube every cloud
una plegaria a prayer
cada gota every drop
de lluvia of rain
un milagro a miracle
cada cuerpo every body
una orilla a seashore
al mar a memory
un olvido at once lost
encontrado and found
todos juntos: we all together—
luciérnagas fireflies
de la noche in the night
soñando dreaming up
el cosmos the cosmos
Francisco X. Alarcón (1954–2016) b. Wilmington, CA, and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. Returned to Southern California at age seventeen. Earned BA from California State University, Long Beach, and MA from Stanford. Served as director of the Spanish for Native Speakers Program at the University of California, Davis, and taught for the California Poets in the Schools program. Publications include the poetry collections De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love (1991), the American Book Award–winning Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992), and From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche (2002); among his books for children are the bilingual poetry collection From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del ombligo de la luna: y otros poemas de verano (1998). Winner of a Chicano Literary Prize and the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award, and other honors.