What California’s poet laureate — from Modesto and a Stan State alum — told Turlock students

Lee Herrick began writing poems in high school in Modesto, then honed his craft at Stanislaus State University.

He returned to the Turlock campus Tuesday, five months into a two-year stint as California’s poet laureate.

Herrick, 53, recited a few of his published works and answered questions from current English majors. He is the first Asian-American to hold the post, born in South Korea and adopted at 10 months by a California couple.

“I’m inspired by ancestry,” Herrick said. “I’m deeply inspired by people surviving and making it through something — a difficult class, addiction, trauma, moving, stress at the bank.”

Herrick has taught in the English department at Fresno City College since 1997. He learned of his appointment as poet laureate during a surprise classroom visit from Gov. Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

The poet laureate promotes the literary form at schools, civic events, prisons and other venues. About 50 people attended Tuesday’s reading at the Student Center, sponsored by Penumbra, the campus literary and art journal.

From Bay Area to Modesto

Herrick spent his early boyhood in the East Bay city of Danville, then moved to Modesto in the late 1970s. He attended Stanislaus Elementary School, Prescott Junior High School and Davis High School.

Herrick studied at Modesto Junior College before Stan State. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1994 and a master’s in 1997. He played soccer for both the Pirates and Warriors.

Tuesday’s readings included “My California,” where Herrick mentions things good and bad about his adoptive state. These verses touch on his current hometown:

“Here, in my California, the streets remember the Chicano poet whose songs still bank off Fresno’s beer-soaked gutters and almond trees in partial blossom.

“Here, in my California, we fish out long noodles from the pho with such accuracy, you’d know we’d done this before.

“In Fresno, the bullets tire of themselves and begin to pray five times a day. In Fresno, we hope for less of the police state and more of a state of grace.”

‘Really inspirational’

Stan State senior Martina Bekasha was among the English majors in the audience.

“I really loved his story, especially how he moved from Korea to here and was adopted,” she said afterward. “ ... The poems were really inspirational.”

Junior Roberto Montes recently submitted his own poem to Penumbra. He said he liked the down-to-earth feel of Herrick’s pieces.

“I think (other poets) take it too seriously,” he said. “They see poetry as this big artistic expression, when to me it’s just expression.”

The governor offered his own praise in a November news release: “As a teacher, poet and father, Lee writes movingly about his identity as a Californian and encourages others to reflect on what the state means to them.”

Herrick has published three collections: “This Many Miles From Desire” in 2007, “Gardening Secrets of the Dead” in 2012, and “Scar and Flower” in 2019. He co-edited a 2020 anthology, “The World I Leave You: Asian-American Poets on Faith and Spirit.”

The books can be ordered online at www.leeherrick.com.