The Poet & the Poem
He is the author of "I Am Offering This Poem"
Who is Jimmy Santiago Baca?
In the first stanza, the speaker tells his beloved to keep the poem like this item of winter outerwear.
What is a warm coat?
According to the final stanza, the poem is all anyone needs to live and go on living when this outside entity "no longer cares if you live or die".
What is the world?
This is when a conclusion or educated guess is reached, using available evidence and logical reasoning.
What is an inference?
This is Baca's likely audience. (People who he writes poetry for.)
What are poor people?
Baca famously learned to do this while serving time in a maximum-security prison in Arizona.
What is read and write?
The speaker compares the poem to a pair of these thick items so the cold cannot bite through.
What are thick socks?
Instead of offering expensive material or physical objects, the speaker offers this creative expression as their only currency of love.
What is a poem?
This is the state of being fully developed, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially.
What is mature?
This is the overall tone of the author.
What is loving, tender, devoted, etc.? (Answers may vary)
The opening line of the poem states, "I am offering this poem to you, since I have nothing else to..."
What is "give"?
In the third stanza, the poem becomes a pot full of this specific food to warm the belly.
What is yellow corn?
When life becomes mature, the speaker suggests that existence turns into this confusing, directionless place where the poem acts as a guide.
What is the wilderness?
This is the path or course on which something moves, faces, or points.
What is direction?
These are some of the benefits that Baca hopes the poem will have for the reader. (Provide 1)
What is protect them from the cold, warm their belly in winter, tie up their hair, offer love, offer shelter, etc. *Answers may vary.
This three-word phrase is repeated at the end of each stanza throughout the poem as a refrain of affection.
What is "I love you"?
The poem is compared to this head covering meant to tie up around the face.
What is a scarf?
This central emotion is offered by the speaker as the most valuable thing they have, surpassing any physical objects.
What is love?
To construct this, builders use logs, tree bark, and packed earth.
What is a hogan?
This is what makes a metaphor different from a simile.
What is not using "like" or "as".
This is is a group of lines in a poem that form a single, distinct unit, much like a paragraph in a story.
What is a stanza?
In the third stanza, a safe place of refuge is described as being tucked away in dense trees like one of these traditional dwellings.
What is a cabin or a hogan?
This is the definition of "theme".
What is is the central idea, underlying message, or deeper meaning that an author explores?
This is when components are very close together, making it hard to see or move through
What is dense?
This is something that can be interpreted on a literal level from the poem.
What is "I am offering this poem to you...", "I have nothing else to give."