Here and There

Juan Felipe Herrera

I sit and meditate—my dog licks her paws
on the red-brown sofa
so many things somehow
it all is reduced to numbers letters figures
without faces or names only jagged lines
across the miles half-shadows
going into shadow-shadow then destruction the infinite light

here and there cannot be overcome
it is the first drop of ink

About This Poem

“This is a poem from an unpublished collection, ‘Back to Where I Belong.’ Here I am interested in the new dominant discourse of surveillance and data where all other forms of identity are subordinate to it. Nevertheless, this top narrative tier is not exhaustive.”
—Juan Felipe Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera is the author of Senegal Taxi (University of Arizona Press, 2013). He is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and teaches at the University of California, Riverside. Herrera lives in Fresno, California.

Photo credit: Randy Vaughn-Dotta

Most Recent Book by Herrera

Senegal Taxi

University of Arizona Press, 2013)

"The Purpose of Ritual" by Melissa Broder

"What Are They Doing in the Next Room" by Bruce Smith

"Poof!" by Mark Irwin

Read This Poem

For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week’s featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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April 14, 2015