Birth of a Poet A writer's work is influenced by his or her life experiences and interpretation of the world. In A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca, he provides an autobiographical account of his childhood and eventual incarceration. Baca journeys from an illiterate youth using violence to survive the harsh realities of prison life, to a poet with a meaning in life. In prison, Baca was sent to solitary confinement several times. This greatly influences his growth as a person and as a writer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “More than anything else, I loved the open space” (Baca 104). This realization hit him while he was on the bus to the prison where he would spend the next five years of his life. The first time Baca was placed in solitary confinement proved the most difficult. With the days broken only by daily meals pushed through a crack in his cell door, he had only his own thoughts to keep him company in the darkness. Baca went through a range of emotions during his 30 days in solitary confinement that tested his mental health. From nightmares of the fight that brought him there to paranoia about crawling rats, insects and other prisoners about to burst through the walls, Baca had to somehow fight his growing panic and survive to a seemingly endless solitude. After trying to exercise to stave off the boredom and stay sane, he eventually fell into a depression and just lay there, letting time pass. After hitting rock bottom, he might continue to live in despair or look for ways to get back up. Being returned to the general prison population was like being given a new lease of life. After being deprived of senses for so long, even the random sights and sounds of prison sounded good. “My new beginning had a real sweetness; I couldn’t wait to start doing my time from a completely different point of view” (Baca 126). Not yet a writer, but with more of a feeling of being happy just to be alive. Baca entered his second period of solitary confinement thinking he would have survived it the first time and could therefore do it again. Instead of the darkness and loneliness of isolation being seen as a terrifying prospect, Baca used this time to remember and reflect on his past. What started as just a way to pass time, thinking about the past, sharpened Baca's focus and became something more. “I had never delved into my memories so acutely before. I felt more outside my cell than in it” (Baca 134). He became so immersed in his memories that the past and present became a confusing jumble. The waking dream always ends in the dark and lonely cell. This time leaving the solitary cell, Baca felt a change in himself. “I saw things as if for the first time because something was different in me” (Baca 155). He wanted to attend prison school to get his GED. Although he was on his best behavior, he was denied this chance at his reclassification hearing. Without the time spent in solitary confinement, Baca might have acted violently, but instead he protested silently by refusing to work and doing little more than stare at the bars of his cell. “It was the first time I felt like I was accomplishing something, even though I didn’t see why” (Baca 166). In this way apparently.