The music of Juan Felipe Herrera has been on my mind lately–how he crafts a poem to hold mind, body, and soul–how human and aware his words are of their readers. I love the poetry of Juan Felipe Herrera.
So, I hid his poems all over a High School Biology classroom and wrote his words across any empty wipe board I came across. I stood back and watched student “find” the poems, love the poems, and even take Juan Felipe Herrera with them.
I’m sure I’ll come back to JFH during the year, but here he is briefly (and covertly) now:
The Poems:
Let Me Tell You What a Poem Brings
for Charles Fishman
Before you go further,
let me tell you what a poem brings,
first, you must know the secret, there is no poem
to speak of, it is a way to attain a life without boundaries,
yes, it is that easy, a poem, imagine me telling you this,
instead of going day by day against the razors, well,
the judgments, all the tick-tock bronze, a leather jacket
sizing you up, the fashion mall, for example, from
the outside you think you are being entertained,
when you enter, things change, you get caught by surprise,
your mouth goes sour, you get thirsty, your legs grow cold
standing still in the middle of a storm, a poem, of course,
is always open for business too, except, as you can see,
it isn’t exactly business that pulls your spirit into
the alarming waters, there you can bathe, you can play,
you can even join in on the gossip—the mist, that is,
the mist becomes central to your existence.
tomorrow I leave to El Paso, Texas
