I had a mostly hate relationship with poetry until a few weeks ago. My English club kids asked for poetry lessons, which meant lots of research on my end. I spent hours and hours perusing middle school and high school poetry lessons and suggestions posted on the internet. I had not realized I was entering a black hole I would find happiness in.

As I spent more and more time looking for the perfect poems for Swazi students who I expected also had not had an always-positive experience with poetry, I found a new favorite poem. I have always loved Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego-Tripping,” and now it has some competition: Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “I Am Offering this Poem.”

I tried to take a photo of my piles of handwritten poems that I am using for school, but it didn’t turn out well. Instead, here’s an excerpt from “I Am Offering this Poem.”

I have not found a way to work this poem into my poetry lessons yet, because we are talking about heritage, but I will keep it on the back burner until the time is right.