Joseph Pacheco, of Sanibel Island, died of natural causes on February 2, 2026. He was 95 years old. Born on July 21, 1930, on the Lower East Side of New York City, Joe was a proud \u201cNuyorican\u201d and the first Puerto Rican NYC district school superintendent. While waiting for his wife, Marjorie, to retire he was an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College. After relocating to Sanibel in 1996, Joe rediscovered his poetry \u201cmuse\u201d and wrote over 400 poems, many about his childhood growing up as a \u201cNuyorican\u201d in NYC and life on Sanibel Island.<\/p>\n
Joe, aka \u201cSanibeljoe\u201d was one of Sanibel\u2019s most famous poets, often regarded as the island\u2019s unofficial poet laureate. He published a weekly poetry column in Sanibel\u2019s Islander newspaper under the title \u201cPoetic License.\u201d Joe\u2019s published works include The First of the Nuyoricans: Sailing to Sanibel, Alligator in the Sky and Sanibel Joe\u2019s Songbook. His poems were featured on NPR\u2019s \u201cMorning Edition\u201d and \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d as well as \u201cLatino USA\u201d. His poem \u201cNor More Heavy Poems\u201d was recently accepted by the literary journal, Passage.<\/p>\n
Among his many activities, Joe was co-founder of ArtPoems, a collaborative project between poets and artists, organizer and host of the annual Sanibel Poetry Fest, past president of the Southwest Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, member of WGCU Public Media Advisory Board and on the Board of the SW Florida Symphony. He loved playing tennis and was a master of drop shots.<\/p>\n
Joe is survived by his beloved and loving wife, Marjorie, his daughter Allegra, son-in-law Abed and four grandchildren \u2013 Quds, Jaleel, Carmella and Majdal. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to WGCU Public Media, a cause close to his heart.<\/p>\n
In loving memory of his weekly poetry column. <\/p>\n
Forgotten<\/p>\n
*By Joe Pacheco*<\/p>\n
I am afraid of being forgotten, <\/p>\n
Of no one on Earth recalling my voice, <\/p>\n
My laughter, the stupid way I stooped <\/p>\n
And tilted to the right when I walked, <\/p>\n
The drop shots I hit to drive<\/p>\n
My tennis foes crazy, <\/p>\n
The Frank Sinatra song parodies<\/p>\n
I sang in the shower and to my friends. <\/p>\n
I am afraid because I remember <\/p>\n
How easy it\u2019s been to forget <\/p>\n
The looks, sounds and scents<\/p>\n
Of my mother, brother and father, <\/p>\n
The jokes of woebegone buddies,<\/p>\n
The charm of former lovers, <\/p>\n
Each day thinking of them less and less<\/p>\n
Until much too soon, not at all. <\/p>\n
Most of all, I am afraid <\/p>\n
No one will read the poems<\/p>\n
I once believed would be <\/p>\n
My passport to posterity,<\/p>\n
Afraid my poems will remain <\/p>\n
Shut away in unopened books,<\/p>\n
Or float forever unclicked <\/p>\n
In the vast oblivion of cyberspace <\/p>\n
With no one to download them and sigh, <\/p>\n
\u201cWish I had written that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Pacheco, of Sanibel Island, died of natural causes on February 2, 2026. He was 95 years old.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-160418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}