There's the wall, the border wall between the United States and Mexico. I Am Merely Posing for a Photograph. By Juan Felipe Herrera. Read all poems of Juan Felipe Herrera and infos about Juan Felipe Herrera. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Let's talk about the imagery in your writing. They're just policies that get passed that rip us apart, and they move on. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Juan Felipe Herrera reading from his new collection of poems called "Every Day We Get More Illegal." But then these lands that we stand on in this place that we call America are also ancestral lands for migrants. It's a painful story for migrants today, as we know about the migrants from Honduras and from Central America recently. He's also a former U.S. poet laureate. Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise, The Road Not Taken, If You Forget Me, Dreams Juan Felipe Herrera is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist. - because the sun goes up, and the sun goes down, and people have to travel at night and find light somehow and travel during the daytime and find more light. HERRERA: That pain can transform into joy and happiness and a sense of being, of positive being. For that I had to push you aside. Another image linking these poems in this collection is the firefly, which you use to symbolize the migrants themselves. Copyright 2020 NPR. HERRERA: Thank you very much. And I said, wait a minute - the firefly is an interesting little thing, you know? Thank you. HERRERA: Well, you know, this theme of the border, of being a migrant, of being cut away in two pieces, perhaps in many more pieces - you have Latin America. And it's also a very fragile being, a firefly - very fragile. The son of migrant farmers, Herrera moved often, living in trailers or tents along the roads of the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California. There's an America of power, the center of power where we feel we don't even need an identity. GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to just ask you about this particular moment because I think the overwhelming thing that I do get from this book is pain. Also, we have to feel the pain. You know, we cannot turn away and live in a fantasy. More Poems by Juan Felipe Herrera. And this is a collection of poems about a very particular moment for Latinos and for immigrants in this country. Juan Felipe Herrera is an artist and educator and activist and a former U.S. poet laureate. GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to ask you about providing your own light amid the darkness of suffering and loss because that is a thread throughout this book. Poem Hunter all poems of by Juan Felipe Herrera poems. So I kind of remember that. The son of migrant farmers, Herrera moved often, living in trailers or tents along the roads of the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California. Where do they go? You know, we don't talk about identity. As a child, he attended school in a variety of small towns from San Francisco to San Diego. Poems by Juan Felipe Herrera, the newly named poet laureate.. HALF-MEXICAN. What would you like to leave the reader with? Is she me, or is she dead? War Voyeurs. (Reading) Summer journals - August 8, 2007. You have the Caribbean. Herrera was the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. You know, right now, what's going on, as you know, in the national discourse, especially in the top tier, we have many versions of America. On the custody floor, 105.7 degrees, where do I go? Juan Felipe Herrera poems, quotations and biography on Juan Felipe Herrera poet page. You know, there's fake America. Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, on December 27, 1948. First I had to learn.