Dear Mr Baca,

I am writing to you because i want to know about your childhood and what inspired you to become a poet.

My name is Reuben Mason and i go to London Nautical School in South London. I came across your poetry in my English lesson when my teacher, Mr O’Brien read your poems ”Who understands Me but Me” and also ”Immigrants in our own land.

While learning more about you, i wondered what you had done to get yourself into prison. What were your opinions of being in solitary confinement? I don’t want to sound rude, but I’m interested to know if it is true that you did not know how to read or write when you first went to prison? How did you manage to stay positive during your time in prison?

Reading your poetry, i often wonder what your childhood was like. In class we found out about a bit of your childhood. Is it true that you grew up in an orphanage? Did it impact on the stuff that you write about in your poems? Were there people that you knew or family who were poets as well like you?

One thing that interested me in your poem “Who understands Me but Me” is when you said “They take my life and crush it, so i live without a future’. Did this make you more determined to become a poet? If not, what was it that pushed you to study literature whilst in prison?

I guess there are a lot of people who want to be like you. Who was your inspiration? By writing your poems, did you feel like more and more people found out about you? Is that what made you carry on? I also learnt that you completely changed your life around after your time in prison. What made you do this?

The final thing i would like to find out about you is on the topic of your life today. Do you still write poems? I have read two of your poems so far. Are there any others that you have written? If so, I am very curious what they are called. If you had not gone to prison, do you think you would have become a poet.

I would really appreciate it if you read my letter and answered my questions.

Yours sincerely,

Reuben Mason