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= “I am Offering This Poem" = “I am Offering This Poem,” is a poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca, published in 1990 in the collection Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems. Using comparisons to warm, fuzzy gifts, Baca’s rich diction and imagery help epitomize the central theme of the work- the importance of poetry, and arguably, art in general- especially when it is the only thing to give.

History
Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “I am Offering This Poem” was published, along with other notable poetry, in the collection Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems in 1990, a few years after Baca achieved initial success with works like Martin and Meditations on the South Valley (1987) and was honored with literary accolades including the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 1989. Baca began writing only a decade or so earlier, when he spent five years in prison (1973-1978) for drug charges. During these years, he learned to read and began writing the poetry that would later bring light to not only his personal story of incarceration, but to the complex and murky world of the US penal system in general. “I am Offering This Poem” echoes the importance of poetry (and art) for survival in oppressive environments; the work explains what is truly valuable in life- things that affect our spirit, not our pockets or egos- this is understood by no one better than Baca himself, who not only survived a combative, luxury-free warzone, but used the experience to educate himself and learn the value of poetry that would later translate to the publication of this poem.

Text
I am offering this poem to you,

since I have nothing else to give.

Keep it like a warm coat

when winter comes to cover you,

or like a pair of thick socks

the cold cannot bite through,

I love you,

I have nothing else to give you,

so it is a pot full of yellow corn

to warm your belly in winter,

it is a scarf for your head, to wear

over your hair, to tie up around your face,

I love you,

Keep it, treasure this as you would

if you were lost, needing direction,

in the wilderness life becomes when mature;

and in the corner of your drawer,

tucked away like a cabin or hogan

in dense trees, come knocking,

and I will answer, give you directions,

and let you warm yourself by this fire,

rest by this fire, and make you feel safe

I love you,

It’s all I have to give,

and all anyone needs to live,

and to go on living inside,

when the world outside

no longer cares if you live or die;

remember,

I love you.

Analysis
Formally, “I am Offering This Poem” can be considered an ode, an adulatory poem written to, or about a specific person, and in this case, thing- as Baca praises poetry itself. Furthermore, we can consider this work to be an example of free verse, as it follows no specific metre. Also, the lines that constitute the poem do not rhyme, and they are of varying lengths. However, one constant in the poem is the refrain that ends the stanzas, which also help to group the poem. This refrain is a sweet reminder, simply: “I love you.” Not only does this add form to an otherwise very free poem, it also reiterates the tone(s) central to the work- poetry is important, it's all he [our speaker] has to give, and it symbolizes, nay is, love. Our speaker is never identified, all we know is that he’s a poet, with a lot of love to give to a similarly unidentified speaker. Of course, we can like the dependence upon poetry/art to Baca’s own life, but the the ambiguity surrounding both the speaker and the subject of the poem, lends the work an air of generalness, which may be a conscious effort by Baca to make the piece relevant and relatable. This vastness is furthered by the lack of specific setting as well; in the end of the poem the speaker refers generally to the "world outside," which he characterizes as cold, uncaring- in direct opposition to the warmer parts of the piece. Metaphor and simile are two examples of literary devices used by Baca to provide imagery to the poem and specifically to describe the effects of his poem. In lines 3-4, the speaker tells the subject to keep his poem like a warm coat, later on he likens the poem to a “pair of thick socks;” both these comparisons connote a sense of warmth and intimacy. The poem is the subject of more comparisons, however: in lines 14-15, the speaker tells the subject to refer to his poem when they are “lost” or need “direction.” These words help lend the poem a connotation of guidance, which is only furthered when our speaker calls life/the world around him (and us) “wilderness.” The last concept that is illuminated by poetic comparison is the physical poverty of the speaker- and the subsequent spiritual richness. In the beginning of the poem, he iterates, and reiterates, that he has “nothing else” to give but the poem. As well, line 24 reveals the survivalist qualities of a poem, as our speaker states, “it's all anyone needs to live." These concepts of poetry and generosity give way to the ultimate themes of “I am Offering This Poem:” love, writing/art, and the physical and spiritual understandings of home and protection. Love is perhaps the most easily understood theme of the work, as the word is thrown around so much, especially with the refrain, “I love you.” However, love isn’t expressed in the more typical ways like marriage, romance, sex, or stability- Baca creates a love offering with poetry itself. This highlights another clear theme in the work- of the (sentimental) value of writing; in this way, we can extrapolate a meta quality from the work- it is a poem about poetry. Lastly, “I am Offering This Poem” creates a sense of home (and the protection that it allows) with specific diction, such as that occurring in the second to last stanza, which states: “treasure this [poem] as you would, if you were lost, needing direction, in the wilderness life becomes when mature; and in the corner of your drawer, tucked away like a cabin or hogan,” as well as that in the beginning: “keep it [poem] like a warm coat when winter comes to cover you.” With this and other comparisons to the speaker’s poem, the work displays strong examples of the value of literature.