I’m happy to see that Juan Felipe Herrera is showing up on a lot of year-end lists regarding “Best Books of 2015.” Recently, he was named our U.S. poet laureate. I had Juan as an instructor for a couple of courses and/or workshops in my UC Riverside writing program. I used to drive up from Mexicali to get to his class early to speak with him a little bit. When I first began teaching in San Diego, I worked in the neighborhood he grew up in. ¡Qué casualidad! Below, I try to capture some important insight I picked up along the way. As soon as I’m done with this post, I think I’ll order his book.