Thoughts on writing

How we measure the worth of language or the worth of the writer seems to be whether a person acquires the acknowledgement and recognition of peers. That recognition coming in the form of being published, winning awards. I think back to my own teachers, award winning poets who were nurtured by older award winning poets, who had their poetry published in volumes of their own and in collections, taught in respected universities and it is as if they never existed...so far and long ago are their voices.