I Am Offering This Poem
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I Am Offering This Poem
"I Am Offering This Poem" is a poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca Jimmy Santiago Baca (born January 2, 1952) is an American poet, memoirist, and screenwriter from New Mexico. Early life and education Baca was born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived ..., first published in ''Immigrants in Our Own Land'' (1979). It was reprinted in 1990 in the collection ''Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems.'' Baca’s diction and imagery convey a central theme of the work- the importance of poetry and art in general. History Jimmy Santiago Baca, an American poet of Chicano descent, began writing poetry during five years he spent in prison (1973-1978) for drug charges. During these years, he learned to read and began writing the poetry that reflected his personal story of incarceration, and the complex world of the US penal system. “I am Offering This Poem” deals with the themes of the importance of art for survi ...
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Jimmy Santiago Baca
Jimmy Santiago Baca (born January 2, 1952) is an American poet, memoirist, and screenwriter from New Mexico. Early life and education Baca was born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived with one of his grandmothers for several years before being placed in an orphanage. At the age of 13 he ran away and wound up living on the streets. When he was 21, he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He served five years in prison, three of them in isolation, and having expressed a desire to go to school (the guards considered this dangerous), he was put in the same area of the prison with the inmates on death row for a period of time before he was released. During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. He sold these poems to fellow inmates in exchange for cigarettes. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to the magazine ''Mother Jones'', then edit ...
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Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle. Poetry has a long and varied history, evolving differentially across the globe. It dates back at least to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa and to panegyric and elegiac court poetry of the empires of the Nile, Niger, and Volta River valleys. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa occurs among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE. The earliest surviving Western Asian epic poetry, the '' Epic of Gilgamesh'', was written in Sumerian. Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese ''Shijing'', as well as religious hymns (the S ...
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Incarceration In The United States
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate. One out of every 5 people imprisoned across the world is incarcerated in the United States. In 2018 in the US, there were 698 people incarcerated per 100,000; this includes the incarceration rate for adults or people tried as adults.United States of America
World Prison Brief.
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