Sabines was an outstanding member of the Mexican Writers Centre from 1964 to 1965 and part of the jury for the Casa de las Americas prize.
A collection of his work, Nuevo recuento de poemas, was issued by the publisher Joaquín Mortiz in 1977, and the Secretariat of Public Education in 1986.
In 1994 he received from the Senate of Mexico the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor; in 1995, his selected poems, Pieces of Shadow (trans.
Merwin), was brought out in a bilingual edition by Papeles Privados; and in 2004 Exile Editions (Toronto, Canada) published a bilingual volume of two early Sabines books, Adam and Eve & Weekly Diary and Poems in Prose (trans.
Octavio Paz considered him “one of the greatest contemporary poets of our [Spanish] language.” Sabines died on March 19, 1999.