he crients alan ginsburg -- he cites alan ginsburg as an influence.work is very ex personalitile, different styles you're trying, yet, at the same time, you are clearly trying to reach people right? >> yes. ou want to be understood. es. yeah, we can understand poetry in a billion styles. experiment, tradition, combination, spice image, it's all there for the poet, the listener and all of us. that's what it's about, you know. >> brown: as california's poet laureat, herrera wrote and engaged others on the issues of the day including bullying among young people, and he's long within concerned with the human and policy drama of migration. >> i have a piece called mortar bus and it's about two women on a border bus on a bus that had been detained and they had been arrested and hauled in and put in a bus, and one says we'll where are we going? the other says nowhere. theout burn says, i come from nowhere. >> brown: herrera told me as we walked through fresno's mall on monday morning he now feels a great responsibility. >> i know i'm representing the library