RavePopMattersA calming and invigorating musicality permeates Herrera\'s printed poetry ... This sensibility may be unexpected, considering that the title of his latest tome, Every Day We Get More Illegal , seems to foretell a diatribe vibe. Of course, versified tirades would be understandable and even welcome in such a collection ... But the fact that Herrera steers clear of outright anger in his verse is an inspiring testament to the indomitable spirit of many Latinos. It also reflects the poet\'s inimitable ability to transmute personal outrage into rousing literary songs ... it\'s an eclectic, eccentric blending of voices and styles. Amid surrealist and symbolist imagery are prose poems, poems that emulate Japanese forms and tones, stream-of-consciousness, spoken word rhythms, verse that liquidly mingles Spanish and English and many other styles, unfettered by categories or without poetic precedent ... What remains threaded throughout Herrera\'s verse is the musicality--the calming, invigorating melodies that remind us, ever so sweetly, if insistently: Latino lives are beloved.
