Corey Jones/CPR News Former Aurora poet laureate Jovan Mays stands at the Aurora Metro Center Bus Station, Jan. 27, 2017.

Former Aurora poet laureate Jovan Mays’ grandfather was a New York City bus driver for more than 20 years.

Born and raised in Aurora, Mays didn’t get to see him often, so he has no memory of them together. But he does remember attending his grandfather’s funeral in third grade.

“There were hundreds of people at his funeral, people that rode his line,” Mays says. “It made me realize he had touched some lives in a unique way.”

At age 30, Mays still thinks about those people when he rides the bus. It’s actually one of his favorite places to write and observe. As Aurora’s first poet laureate, Mays — whose three-year term ended this week — also frequented libraries, museums and schools around his hometown.

Mays has a car, but he still tries to ride the bus once a week for a few hours. It’s a source of inspiration, full of activity and conversation. The poet likes that so many people from different walks of life use the bus. Each line has a different soul, he says.

“You want to know the city? Hop on,” Mays says of the RTD 15 and 15L lines, which run along East Colfax from Aurora to Denver and back. It’s a busy thoroughfare, and the 15 carries a lot of people.

“It might as well be a diner or like my YMCA in the morning,” he says. “If something really strikes me, I’ll pull out the pencil and try to construct. But sometimes it’s just about feeling it.”

Mays often throws on his headphones to soundtrack the bus ride with the likes of Common, Max Roach or Bob Dylan. He is especially attentive at each intersection, like Colfax Avenue and Yosemite Street — known as “the split” between Aurora and Denver.

Mays knows a lot about Aurora. He’s researched important figures who inspired road names, like former U.S. Vice President Schuyler Colfax and Aurora Public Schools founder William Smith.

“A part of being a poet laureate is trying to be a modern historian.”

A poet laureate writes and performs pieces for special events, like “State of the City” addresses or holidays like Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They host workshops and advocate for literacy. As Mays says, they are selected “to be the voice of your city.”

The United States has its own poet laureate. So does Colorado. Denver has a youth poet laureate. And in 2013, Aurora city officials decided to search for their first.

“To reach out and say, ‘This is an important event and here’s why,’ you’ve got to have the emotion,” says Aurora’s director of library and cultural services department Patti Bateman, and Mays was a standout candidate.

“He has passion, enthusiasm, he’s articulate,” Bateman says.

But the ride wasn’t always smooth. In 2015, a couple of Aurora city council members expressed concerns over some of his poetry. Mays does explore some controversial issues like racism.