O.C. Poet Laureate discusses the single life in ‘Bachelor’
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When poet, author and educator Gustavo Hernandez published his first book of poetry, “Flower Grand First,” in 2021, a long period of silence followed.
Writing it was a heavy lift for the Mexican writer, who immigrated to Santa Ana with his parents in the 1980s.
“It encompassed my childhood, my family’s immigration to the United States, my coming out, the death of my father,” Hernandez, who is now Orange County’s poet laureate, said in a recent interview.
His newest book of poetry, “Bachelor,” published through FlowerSong Press in October, contains works that relate to his individual experience, but Hernandez hopes readers can see a part of themselves in it.
“One of my concerns with my first book was, is it too specific? But I found out that specificity is actually what creates universality,” he said. “It really was my life up until that point.”
When he finished writing “Flower Grand First” Hernandez didn’t write another poem for almost 11 months. The pause didn’t worry him, though.
“I am usually a pretty slow writer anyway, I think it just felt natural,” he said. “I felt like I needed the rest.”
Once he began thinking about writing again, significant life changes were the catalyst for a new creation.
“I had just ended a 10-year romantic relationship, which was, in effect, almost like a marriage,” he said.
Hernandez also moved back home to care for his 80-year-old mother. He was starting a new chapter in his life and admits he didn’t really know the way forward.
Then his niece, Yuzuko, was born.
Having a child in the family got the writer thinking about the concept of legacy.
“Legacy, specifically regarding someone like me,” he said. “Someone who is a son, an uncle, a brother, but not someone who is a husband or a father.”
Gustavo Hernandez, published by FlowerSong Press.
As a gay man in his 40s, Hernandez began to consider what his legacy meant and to whom he would be leaving it. He began writing poems again to work through this exploration of his identity, which resulted in “Bachelor.”
“I am not a traditional person,” said Hernandez. “I thought, why am I trying to lock myself into these traditional structures? I had to really dig into what my life looked like and make the poems run parallel to that.”
“Bachelor” explores the ways single life can be just as full of love and light as married life. The book takes place over roughly a three-year period, a departure from the poet’s lifetime-encompassing first book.
There are poems that speak of passionate love affairs and instances of unbridled joy but also heartbreak and loneliness. Many use the same titles — “Nocturne” and “Son” are two — as an expression of how small Hernandez said his world felt.
“The largeness was in a small container, it was my family home, the same four walls that I had known for all my life,” he said. “The poems reflect that.”
Hernandez hopes the book feels like turning a vase around in your hands, examining it from every angle.
Like “Flower Grand First,” which was named for streets in Santa Ana, “Bachelor” is also deeply rooted in the artist’s local community.
“Orange County is still the stage for the poems, but I think it feels almost more specific than my first book,” he said.
The 55 Freeway, the Comfort Inn near John Wayne Airport and the Tustin Hanger, destroyed in a fire in 2023, all make appearances.
As O.C. poet laureate, a position created by arts cooperative LibroMobile in 2021, Hernandez represents and advocates for local and regional poetry, a job he doesn’t take lightly.
“Our job descriptions as laureates is usually pretty broad, so it’s kind of what you make of it,” he said. “Like, who are you as a poet and how are you going to use that to further poetry in the region you are assigned? My whole thing, as a laureate, has been education.”
Hernandez teaches poetry workshops at Irvine Valley College. He also hosts monthly office hours at LibroMobile Bookstore in Santa Ana.
“My platform has been education and mentorship, because I have a great mentor, Diane Seuss, who is an amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning poet,” said Hernandez. “I want to pay that forward.”
The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana will host the official book launch of “Bachelor” at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 11. Hernandez will read from and sign copies of his books.
