Jimmy Santiago Baca

Presented by Madison Novacek

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Biography

The Bittersweet Life of Jimmy Santiago Baca“Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things” (“Robert Frost Quotes” Good Reads).

This quote said by Robert Frost truly relates to Baca since it expresses the tough times the poet had to go through in order to succeed. Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1952 of Indo-Mexican decent. He was abandoned by his parents at the age of two and lived with his grandma for several years (Kogelnik). He was later sent to an orphanage and ran away at the age of thirteen. During his teenage years, Baca lived a violent and bitter life on the streets (“Jimmy Santiago Baca 1952”, Enotes). At the age of twenty one, he was convicted and incarcerated on charges of drug possession. He served six and a half years in prison and throughout that time, he trained himself to read and write and became a poet. He was released in 1979 and dedicated his life to writing and assisting others by directing writing workshops at schools and universities, barrio community centers, white ghettos, housing projects, correctional facilities and prisons throughout the United States. He is considered one of the nation’s top poets (“Jimmy Santiago Baca”).

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Becoming known as one of the nation’s top poets wasn’t easy however. During his prison time he was exposed to many life or death encounters. One of his fellow inmates persuaded him to send in three of his poems to a magazine called Mother Jones. In 1979, the same year Baca was released from prison, his poems were revised by Denise Levertov and printed. Baca’s poems became a part of Immigrants in Our Own Land and he also earned his GED (“Jimmy Santiago Baca”). In 1984 Baca earned a BA in English, at the University of Mexico, and in 2003 he earned an honorary PhD for Literature at the University of New Mexico. Jimmy Santiago Baca has received numerous awards for his poetry. Some of these awards include, The American Book Award for Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, National Endowment Arts Literary Fellowship University of California –Berkeley, Southwest Book Award, Humanitarian Award, The International Prize for A Place to Stand, and the Cornelius P. Turner GED Award. Baca also published Martin and Meditations on the South Valley, a semi-autobiographical collection of poetry that won an American Book Award in 1988 (“Jimmy Santiago Baca 1952”, Enotes). Baca’s writing wasn’t necessarily influenced by certain a writer but by his life experiences, especially his time spent in prison. His cultural background also played a major role in his poetry. His parents were Spanish and Native American, and most of his poems are based off of life on the barrio. Baca believes one of his duties as a writer is to, "to remain true to my reality so I may honor my people and pay full homage to their spirit" (Kogelnik).

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Biography

The background of Baca is what makes his poetry distinct. Growing up with dysfunctional childhood and his life spent in prison could have easily destroyed him. Instead, he turned his life around and found a way to channel his pain and energy through poetry. He uses experiences that happened throughout his life and wrote about them in his poems (Kogelnik). It was easy for Baca to share his poems with fellow inmates because, like him, they also came from uneducated, working-poor families, and it was very valuable to be heard through his literature. Baca uses poignant diction and synchronized organization to express empathy for other people. The reason behind Baca being noted as one of the nation’s top poets is his ability to personify and relate well to others. Baca is able to take precise, personal experiences and observations and give them universal significance (“Jimmy Santiago Baca”, Holt Elements of Literature). His lasting contribution as a poet and on poetry as a whole is his passionate desire for and dedication to helping others overcome hardships and impacting their lives in a positive way. This quote said by Baca himself explains how he can put his hardships into his poem and he express how he really feels, "Every poem is an infant labored into birth and I am drenched with sweating effort, tired from the pain and hurt of being a man, in the poem I transform myself into a woman." (“Jimmy Santiago Quotes” Good Reads).

Biography

List of Works

Analysis

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Inspired

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Bibliography

List of WorksPoetry

“A Daily Joy to be Alive “ “Ancestor”

“As Life Was Five” “Choices”

“Count-time Green Chile”

“I Am Offering This Poem “ “Like an Animal

Llano Vaqueros” “Old Woman” “Oppression”

“The Blackbird” “The Day Brushes It's Curtains Aside”

“To My Own Self “When Life”

“Who Understands Me But Me” Books

A Place to Stand. (memoir)The Importance of a Piece of Paper. (Stories)

Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio. (essays)Films/Plays

Bound by Honor.The Lone Wolf: The Story of Pancho Gonzalez.

Los tres hijos (play)

For More Works:http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com/biography.html

Biography

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In that airy place we call the heart,I move like a magicianin the colorful stage lights of my moods,my bright dreams, and blue lightcircles a tear on my cheek, and lips with her name.

From flowers in my handsher face appears. In cardsshe is the queen. These are tricksand I am the magician.

Tomorrow morning I will crawl out of bedknowing I cannot escape the chainsthey've wrapped around me.

I will crawl out of bed tomorrow,as though I had stepped out of a boxon stage. It was no illusion,when the sword plunged into the box,I smiled at the crowd,as it went deeper and deeper into my heart. Jimmy Santiago Baca

The Day Brushes It's Curtains Aside to a dark stage.I lie there awake in my prison bunk,in the eye-catching silenceof prison night.

I study the moon out my grilled window.I figure this and that,not out, just figure, figuring more,the inner I go, through illimitable tunnels,

roaring great, myself back back back.

I lie still, listening to water dropsclink and pap pap papin the shower stall next to my cell.

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AnalysisIn “The Day Brushes Its Curtains Aside”, Jimmy Santiago Baca shares with his readers

the difficulty and isolation he deals with on a daily basis in prison. This particular poem is an Elegy, and when Baca defines a typical night in his cell, his tone that is consistent throughout the whole poem becomes more visible. “I study the moon out my grilled window. / I figure this and that, / not out, just figure, figuring more, / the inner I go, through illimitable tunnels.” This quote clearly shows the desire Baca holds to get out. All he can do is just sit and think about all the endless possibilities he could have. Baca also does a fantastic job of using imagery when he describes his cell. “I lie still, listening to water drops/ clink and pap pap pap/ in the shower stall next to my cell.” A person can easily visualize the loneliness he is exposed to and sense his aching on that night. Along with imagery, Baca uses a vivid metaphor. “From flowers in my hands/ her face appears. In cards/ she is the queen. These are the tricks/ and I am the magician.” Baca is conveying that no matter what he does he is persistently reminded of this girl. He blames himself for not being able to get her face out of his head. This is why he calls himself the magician and the girl the trick. Overall, this poem carries out a theme of repentance. Baca obviously wishes not to be in prison any longer, and the only way to escape the reality is to write through poetry. This poem serves Baca’s message justice because it uses a number of methods that catches the reader and draws them in so that they can understand better. He not only shares his hardship of prison currently, but also displays what he will feel tomorrow, and for the rest of his time served. Baca reminds us all that prison is a place nobody wants to be, and we should all think about our actions before doing. All though prison isn’t a good place, if Baca never went none of us would be able to enjoy is incredible writing.

Madison Novacek

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Introduction Poem

I chose Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Like an Animal” because it basically sums up the main theme and purpose behind his writing. It expresses his feeling of being frightened by the idea of being in prison like an animal. Baca began writing his poetry while he was serving time in prison so most of them share the same tone. This particular piece is one of the many insightful poems he has written behind bars.

Like an AnimalBehind the smooth textureOf my eyes, way inside me,

A part of me has died:I move my bloody fingernails

Across it, hard as a blackboard,Run my fingers along it,

The chalk white scarsThat say I AM SCARED,

Scared of what might becomeOf me, the real me,

Behind these prison walls.Jimmy Santiago Baca

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Introduction Poem

How We Carry OurselvesMean to say, you can turn away from this:

If you can take the hammering, they will give,If you can hold on while they grip youAnd hurl you ragefully at the ground,

If you can bite your teeth when they bend you,And still, you do not fit,You can be who you are.

You can see the morning and breathe in God's grace,

You can laugh at sparrows, and find loveIn yourself for the sun, you can learn

What is inside you, you can know silence,You can look at the dark gray machine around you,

Souls going up like billows of black smoke,And decide what you will do next….

Jimmy Santiago Baca

“How We Carry Ourselves” is yet another vivid piece of writing by Jimmy Santiago Baca. He wrote this in prison and is about trying to look past your mistakes and look at the positive view of things. Baca is trying say that if you take everything bad and turn it around, there will be a better tomorrow.

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When Life Is cut close, blades and bones,

And the stench of sewers is everywhere,Blood-sloshed floors,

And guards count the deadWith the blink of an eyelid, then hurry home

To supper and love, what saves usFrom going mad is to carry a vacant stare

And a quiet half-dead dream. Jimmy Santiago Baca

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Inspired Poem

When Our Mistakes(Inspired by Jimmy Santiago Baca)

Don’t seem to matter anymore,And the stench of our faults fill the air,

Forced to climb up the stairs of the regret,And the crowd judges our every step,

Wish they would disappear, so I can hurry home,To acceptance and care, what keeps us sane,

Need to make change and carry out my fantasies,Because when life doesn’t matter anymore,

There’s only quiet half-dead dreams.

Madison Novacek

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I’m Offering this poemI 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 the 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 it as you wouldif 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 a hoganin 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 it's 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.Jimmy Santiago Baca

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I am offering this poem (Inspired by Jimmy Santiago Baca)

I am offering this poem to you, since I have nothing else to give.Keep it like a sunny day, so that it leaves a forever stain on your

skin.Embrace this when my smile slips your mind, and don’t forget

the fire burning in your eyes,I love you.

You know just what to say, to make my body go numb.Just one last touch, could change my day.

But to you I’m just another collectable, in your treasure full of broken hearts.

Please don’t go, for my mind wants you to stay.But since your thoughts are different, you leave anyways.

I hate you.Whenever your desire to see me again occurs don’t hesitate, for

my longing for you is stronger. Like a wave destroying everything in its path, I’ll be your

hurricane.Stuck in this beautiful disaster, you’ve captured my self-being.I’m offering this poem to you, since you’ve taken everything I

had left to give.I forgive you.

Madison Novacek

Inspired PoemBiography

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Original Poem

My AllDay after day same routine,

Nothing lost. Nothing gained.

No matter how hard I pursue my goals,Measuring up to the endless, is impossible.

I find myself asking, why?Because this is the path I chose to take.Encouragement and disappointment,

There seems to be no difference.Sweating out all I have to make you satisfied,

Day after day same dreams.

Madison Novacek

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Original Poem

DarknessShe was an alone storm pursuing the dark,

Preparing to endure the light and climb the vigorous mountain of glory.She isn’t strong enough to paint over her misery

Too fragile like a blooming lilac she immerses into the flower bed.She’s in too deep

Wants to wake up from what seems of a dreadful sleep.Can’t seek her way to immortal firelight.

What a beautiful disaster, shyly raging.

She’s too distant from the rest. She is an alone storm.

Madison Novacek

Biography

List of Works

Analysis

Introduction

Inspired

Original

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Bibliography

Sources from biography:http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com/biography.html

http://cwcs.ysu.edu/resources/literature/jimmy-santiago-baca

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/547

http://eolit.hrw.com/hlla/authorbios/index2.jsp?author=10jimmysantiagobaca

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jimmy-santiago-baca

Pictures:Picture of author: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jimmy-santiago-bacahttp://www.sdcitybookfair.com/sites/authors/index.htmhttp://www.jodyewing.com/jimmy_baca_about_10_04.htmlPicture of hands on bars:http://www.brevardbailbonds.org/Picture of tiger in cage:http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/2010/10/wild-tigers-could-face-extinction-in.htmlPicture of prison cells:www.googleimages.comPicture of dandelion:http://imageofgrace.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/dandelions-and-puppies/Picture of tunnel:http://revjavadude.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/light-tunnel-01/

Picture of book covers by author:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&biw=1276&bih=839&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=book+cover+jimmy+santoago+baca&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=