---
name: "June Jordan on being unmistakably alive"
subtitle: "A standard for a life: live loud enough that your absence registers"
date: 2026-07-09
link: "https://wordsmith.org/words/lubberly.html"
linkText: "wordsmith.org"
source: "A.Word.A.Day"
topics: [words-and-humor]
tags: [life, mortality, purpose]
description: "A.Word.A.Day's daily quote from the poet, teacher, and activist June Jordan (1936–2002), setting a demanding standard for a well-lived life."
---

"I wanted to live my life so that people would know unmistakably that I am alive, so that when I finally die people will know the difference for sure between my living and my death." June Jordan — poet, teacher, and activist (1936–2002) — sets a bracing standard: not merely to be remembered, but to have been present enough that your absence lands as an actual loss. A line to measure a week against.