[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 23, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H4548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN FELIPE HERRERA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Takano) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and pay tribute 
to Juan Felipe Herrera, who was recently appointed to serve as the 
United States Poet Laureate.
  The son of migrant farmworkers, Mr. Herrera is the first Latino 
American to be appointed to this position and has published more than a 
dozen short stories, novels, and collections of poetry.
  In 2008, he was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award, and 
in 2012 he was appointed California's Poet Laureate.
  Never one to shy away from experimentation, Mr. Herrera conducted a 
2-year poetry project, entitled, ``The Most Incredible and Biggest Poem 
on Unity in the World,'' where California residents of all ages submit 
their writings on unity. The project resulted in a 170-page collection 
of poems on unity and how we as Americans can come together.
  A recent retiree from the University of California, Riverside, Mr. 
Herrera taught creative writing and worked with young people in the 
Inland Empire by creating an antibullying poetry project that allows 
kids affected by bullying to channel their feelings through poetry. 
Poetry, after all, is an incredibly powerful medium.
  In his work, ``Let Me Tell You What a Poem Brings,'' Herrera spoke of 
poetry's impact, saying:

     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.

  As a former student of Juan Felipe Herrera's, I offer my 
congratulations and know that he will continue to inspire and move us 
with his words as our next Poet Laureate.

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