1. An epigraph (EH-puh-graf) is a short phrase or quote placed at the beginning of a piece of writing to set it up, often by introducing the theme. Traditionally, an epigraph is a quote from a different piece of writing, but in “When Giving Is All We Have,” poet Alberto Ríos wrote the epigraph himself. What do you think Ríos’s epigraph (“One river gives/Its journey to the next.”) means, and how does it set up the poem? The epigraph refers to how water flows from one river into another. It suggests the idea of someone passing on what they’ve learned or acquired on their journey through life to someone else. This sets up the poem by introducing the theme of giving to others.
2. The first two stanzas describe reasons people give. Summarize the idea of these first two stanzas in one sentence. Sometimes we give because we benefited from someone giving to us, and sometimes we give because we know we would have benefited from someone giving to us.
3. In the third stanza, the poet writes, “We have been better for it,/We have been wounded by it—.” Do you think the poet is talking about giving or receiving—or maybe both? How might someone be wounded by giving or by receiving? It seems the poet could be referring to both giving and receiving. Answers will vary about how giving or receiving might wound someone. Some ideas: Giving to someone who is ungrateful or giving away so much that you no longer have enough for yourself (emotionally, materially, or energetically) could be wounding. Receiving help that you didn’t think you needed might feel like being wounded, as might receiving help that stops you from learning or accomplishing something on your own, even if that help was well-intentioned.
4. The fourth stanza expresses the idea that giving comes in many different forms. What is an example of “loud” giving? How about “quiet” giving? How could giving be both big and small at the same time? Answers will vary.
5. What might the phrase “diamond in wood-nails” mean? Answers will vary. Diamonds are an expensive luxury item, while wood-nails are inexpensive and practical; it seems likely the poet is finding another way of expressing the idea that giving can take many forms.
6. What is the poet saying about giving in the fifth and sixth stanzas? In the fifth stanza, the poet is saying that people have been giving to each other since the beginning of time, and that giving is just as meaningful and important now as it ever was. He then writes about how giving is always personal, a gift from one person to another.
7. In the seventh and eighth stanzas, the poet writes, “You gave me/What you did not have.” What do you think this means? How might someone give something they do not have? Answers will vary. Perhaps the idea is that telling someone what you need can be a gift that allows them to help you. Or perhaps it is about how it’s possible to give another person something like kindness or forgiveness even when you lack kindness or forgiveness in your own life.
8. Based on the final three stanzas of the poem, do you think the poet would agree that when you give to someone, you lose something? Explain. It seems unlikely that the poet would agree that giving leads to loss. Indeed, the final three stanzas of the poem make the point that when we give to others, we may gain something. In the seventh stanza, the poet uses the metaphor of two people giving each other colors and, as a result, both people acquiring a new color that is a blend of the two colors given. The poet then writes about two people giving to each other and how, through that exchange, “something greater” is created.
