Published in the midst of the Covid-19 global pandemic of 2020, Juan Felipe Herrera’s “Social Distancing” is a visually abstract piece arranged in the shape of a sun. Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Herrera is a prolific author of both poetry and children’s literature. “Social Distancing” can be read both as a direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as an extension of Herrera’s larger body of work—much of which addresses social, spiritual, and emotional themes.

Arranged by the visually creative poet Anthony Cody, “Social Distancing” is a concrete poem with complex underpinnings. While many concrete poems utilize their shape to relate to their content more explicitly, “Social Distancing” looks like a sun but describes many unrelated images and ideas. Through the non-traditional arrangement of the lines, Herrera intends for readers to be able to experience the poem in a variety of ways. The Academy of American Poets includes a quotation alongside the poem in which Herrera explains, “you choose where to begin and end” when reading “Social Distancing.”

As a poem, “Social Distancing” reflects the social context in which it was written; at the time of publication in 2020, a global pandemic had shut down cities and countries across the entire globe, keeping people physically separate. Through Cody’s design of spacing the lines, Herrera forces the ideas to individually exist, distanced from one another on the page.

Poet Biography: Juan Felipe Herrera

Born to migrant farmworkers in 1948, Juan Felipe Herrera spent much of his childhood moving often and attending different schools in California. Through the Educational Opportunity Program, Herrera was awarded a scholarship to attend the University of California Los Angeles. During his undergraduate studies, Herrera became invested in the Chicano Civil Rights movement, as well as performing experimental theater and studying anthropology. Herrera earned two master’s degrees: one from Stanford in social anthropology (1980) and a degree in fine arts from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop (1990).

Much of Herrera’s writing is rooted in his Chicano identity; his prolific works include poems that address spiritual, political, and social issues. The author of multiple collections of poetry, Herrera is a highly regarded poet. Herrera was awarded a National Book Critics Circle Award (for Half of the World in Light, 2008) an Americas Award (for Crashboomlove, 1999), an International Latino Book Award (Jabberwalking, 2018), among many others. In addition, Herrera served in the highly honored role of U.S. Poet Laureate from 2015-2017.

Over his impressive career, Herrera has remained committed to participating in a wider community of artists and changemakers. This is both reflected by his stint as U.S. Poet Laureate as well as his many teaching appointments and performances. A Professor Emeritus at California State University (CSU), Herrera also served as the chair of the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department at CSU and as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2011 to 2016.

Artist Biography: Anthony Cody

An emerging poet, Anthony Cody is responsible for the visual arrangement of “Social Distancing.” Raised in Fresno, California, Cody recently published his own book of poetry, Borderland Apocrypha (2020), which includes poetry with interesting visual arrangements. Cody received fellowships from CantoMundo (an American literary organization founded in 2009 to support Latino poets and poetry) and the Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio, as well as serving as a member of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle.

Poem Text

Herrera, Juan Felipe. “Social Distancing.” 2020. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

Due to the unique arrangement of the lines in “Social Distancing,” this summary will go in order of the audio version of the poem read by Herrera, available via the Academy of American Poets ("Social Distancing"). In this reading, the poem begins with the line, “grocery bags have a tendency to wobble,” which will serve as Line 1 in this guide.

Each of the first four lines of “Social Distancing” is a distinct, vivid image: grocery bags, a toy section, stars, and a basketball. Taken together, they imply a kind of childlike setting; the use of “you” in Line 2 and Line 4 amplifies this by suggesting that the reader is a child, or may be engaged in childlike endeavors. Simple, youthful phrases like “wobble” (Line 1) and “dunk you up” (Line 4) also establish a lighthearted tone. Through these lines feel somewhat connected, they mostly exist separated from one another, establishing the poem’s strange narrative style.

As the poem rotates around the bottom of the page, Herrera shifts from specific images into more abstract ideas and language. Active language like “will wreak havoc” (Line 6) and “blossoms” (Line 7) continues to direct each line, creating a feeling of movement as the reader navigates the shape of the poem. This movement is important to the overall tone and mood of the poem; since it can technically be read in any direction, verb usage drives the connection between different lines and images.

The point-of-view remains in the second person until Line 8, which marks a critical shift. Herrera describes “the power between us” (Line 8), suddenly connecting disparate readers or entities together in the poem with the speaker and with one another. This particular line is also important in reference to the context of the poem implied by the title: if the poem is about social distancing during a global pandemic, the space “between us” (Line 8) is the heart of the poem’s message. This space, the speaker insists, is powerful; following this line are five optimistic statements, which can be read as the conclusion of the poem.

The final lines of the poem describe positive emotional qualities entering, like “peace” (Line 9), “trust” (Line 10), “tenderness” (Line 11), and “love” (Line 12). Several of these qualities are placed in opposition with potentially negative things: in Line 10 “fear dissolves” and in Line 12 love is flourishing “for the first time.” This section of the poem can be read as a response to some of the critical social issues taking place during a pandemic: As humans had to be more distanced to stay safe, their fear and acrimony also increased. Herrera’s poem seems to be arguing that it is possible, through social distancing, to begin “healing” (Line 13) instead of hurting further.

In alternate readings of this poem, the ideas might differently engage with one another, yet the center of the poem remains the same: “Healing begins” (Line 13). Though Herrera reads this as the final line, it is also the only line with a capital, implying that the poem could be read with this as the first line, or as a connecting statement with each of the outside lines.