For the first time gathered in one volume comes the complete poetry collection of work by Nikki Giovanni.

Nikki Giovanni is University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Introduction
Chronology
Detroit Conference of Unity and Art (For HRB)	p. 3
On Hearing "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair"	p. 4
You Came, Too	p. 5
Poem (For TW)	p. 6
Poem (For BMC No. 1)	p. 7
Our Detroit Conference (For Don L. Lee)	p. 8
Poem (For Dudley Randall)	p. 9
Poem (For BMC No. 2)	p. 10
Personae Poem (For Sylvia Henderson)	p. 11
Poem (For PCH)	p. 12
Poem (No Name No. 1)	p. 13
Poem (For BMC No. 3)	p. 14
Black Separatism	p. 15
A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails (For Barbara Crosby)	p. 16
Poem (No Name No. 2)	p. 18
The True Import of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro (For Peppe, Who Will Ultimately Judge Our Efforts)	p. 19
A Short Essay of Affirmation Explaining Why (With Apologies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation)	p. 21
Poem (No Name No. 3)	p. 23
Wilmington Delaware	p. 24
Letter to a Bourgeois Friend Whom Once I Loved (And Maybe Still Do If Love Is Valid)	p. 27
I'm Not Lonely	p. 30
Love Poem (For Real)	p. 31
For an Intellectual Audience	p. 33
Black Power (For All the Beautiful Black Panthers East)	p. 34
Seduction	p. 35
Word Poem (Perhaps Worth Considering)	p. 36
The Dance Committee (Concerning Jean-Leon Destine)	p. 39
Of Liberation	p. 41
Poem for Black Boys (With Special Love to James)	p. 45
Concerning One Responsible Negro with Too Much Power	p. 47
Reflections on April 4, 1968	p. 49
The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.	p. 51
A Litany for Peppe	p. 52
Nikki-Rosa	p. 53
The Great Pax Whitie	p. 54
Intellectualism	p. 57
Universality	p. 58
Knoxville, Tennessee	p. 59
Records	p. 60
Adulthood (For Claudia)	p. 62
From a Logical Point of View	p. 64
Dreams	p. 67
Revolutionary Music	p. 68
Beautiful Black Men (With compliments and apologies to all not mentioned by name)	p. 70
Woman Poem	p. 71
Ugly Honkies, or The Election Game and How to Win It	p. 74
Cultural Awareness	p. 79
For Saundra	p. 80
Balances	p. 81
For a Poet I Know	p. 82
For Teresa	p. 84
My Poem	p. 86
Black Judgements (Of bullshit niggerish ways)	p. 88
For Tommy	p. 91
Two Poems: From Barbados	p. 92
For Harold Logan (Murdered by "persons unknown" cause he wanted to own a Black club on Broadway)	p. 93
No Reservations (for Art Jones)	p. 94
Alone	p. 96
For Two Jameses (Ballantine and Snow) In iron cells	p. 97
For Gwendolyn Brooks	p. 98
Autumn Poems	p. 99
Rain	p. 100
Poem for Lloyd	p. 101
Housecleaning	p. 102
Poem for Aretha	p. 103
Revolutionary Dreams	p. 106
Walking Down Park	p. 107
Kidnap Poem	p. 109
The Genie in the Jar (for Nina Simone)	p. 110
All I Gotta Do	p. 111
The Game Of Game	p. 113
Master Charge: Blues	p. 114
The Lion In Daniel's Den (for Paul Robeson, Sr.)	p. 115
For A Lady of Pleasure Now Retired	p. 116
2nd Rapp	p. 118
A Robin's Poem	p. 119
Alabama Poem	p. 120
Poem For Unwed Mothers (to be sung to "The Old F.U. Spirit")	p. 122
12 Gates: To The City	p. 123
Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)	p. 125
A Poem/Because It Came As A Surprise To Me	p. 127
Oppression	p. 128
Toy Poem	p. 129
Some Uses For Them Not Stated	p. 130
Poem For Flora	p. 131
Sometimes	p. 132
Poem For My Nephew (Brother C. B. Soul)	p. 133
Yeah ... But ...	p. 134
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like	p. 135
How Do You Write A Poem?	p. 136
And Sometimes I Sit	p. 138
I Want To Sing	p. 139
Ever Want To Crawl	p. 140
Legacies	p. 143
Mothers	p. 144
A Poem for Carol (May She Always Wear Red Ribbons)	p. 146
A Fishy Poem	p. 147
Winter Poem	p. 148
Conversation	p. 149
Rituals	p. 151
Poem for Stacia	p. 152
The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be	p. 153
The Only Song I'm Singing	p. 154
The Butterfly	p. 155
I Remember	p. 156
A Certain Peace	p. 158
When I Nap	p. 159
Mixed Media	p. 160
Just a New York Poem	p. 161
[Untitled]	p. 163
The Wonder Woman (A New Dream - for Stevie Wonder)	p. 164
Categories	p. 165
Straight Talk	p. 167
Scrapbooks	p. 169
When I Die	p. 171
[Untitled] (For Margaret Danner)	p. 173
My Tower (For Barb and Anthony)	p. 174
Poem (For Nina)	p. 175
Africa I	p. 176
Africa II	p. 177
They Clapped	p. 179
Poem (For Anna Hedgeman and Alfreda Duster)	p. 181
Atrocities	p. 182
Nothing Makes Sense	p. 183
I Laughed When I Wrote It (Don't You Think It's Funny?)	p. 185
On Seeing Black Journal and Watching Nine Negro Leaders "Give Aid and Comfort to the Enemy" to Quote Richard Nixon	p. 187
And Another Thing	p. 189
We	p. 191
My House	p. 192
The Women Gather (for Joe Strickland)	p. 197
Once a Lady Told Me	p. 199
Each Sunday	p. 200
The December of My Springs	p. 202
The Life I Led	p. 203
Mother's Habits	p. 204
The Way I Feel	p. 205
Communication	p. 206
Luxury	p. 207
Poem	p. 208
Hampton, Virginia	p. 209
Poetry Is a Trestle	p. 210
The Laws of Motion (for Harlem Magic)	p. 211
Something to Be Said for Silence	p. 213
Africa	p. 215
Swaziland	p. 217
A Very Simple Wish	p. 218
Night	p. 220
Poetry	p. 221
Always There Are the Children	p. 223
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day	p. 227
Introspection	p. 230
Forced Retirement	p. 232
The New Yorkers	p. 235
Crutches	p. 238
Boxes	p. 240
Poem	p. 242
A Poem Off Center	p. 245
The Winter Storm	p. 247
Age	p. 250
Because	p. 253
Their Fathers	p. 254
Life Cycles	p. 258
Adulthood II	p. 260
Habits	p. 262
Fascinations	p. 264
Gus (for my father)	p. 266
Choices	p. 269
Photography	p. 271
The Beep Beep Poem	p. 272
A Poem for Ed and Archie	p. 274
Woman	p. 275
Space	p. 276
Poem (for EMA)	p. 278
The Rose Bush (for Gordon)	p. 280
Patience	p. 281
Make Up	p. 282
Winter	p. 284
You Are There	p. 285
A Statement on Conservation	p. 287
Turning (I need a better title)	p. 288
A Response (to the rock group Foreigner)	p. 290
A Poem of Friendship	p. 291
Being and Nothingness (to quote a philosopher)	p. 292
The Moon Shines Down	p. 293
That Day	p. 294
Charting the Night Winds	p. 299
Lorraine Hansberry: An Emotional View	p. 301
Hands: For Mother's Day	p. 304
This Is Not for John Lennon (and this is not a poem)	p. 307
Mirrors (for Billie Jean King)	p. 310
Linkage (for Phillis Wheatley)	p. 313
Charles White	p. 316
The Drum (for Martin Luther King, Jr.)	p. 318
A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy	p. 319
Eagles (a poem for Lisa)	p. 320
Flying Underground (for the children of Atlanta)	p. 321
Her Cruising Car: A Portrait of Two Small Town Girls	p. 322
The Cyclops in the Ocean	p. 326
Harvest (for Rosa Parks)	p. 327
Reflections/On a Golden Anniversary	p. 330
Love: Is a Human Condition	p. 331
Sky Diving	p. 332
A Journey	p. 333
Resignation	p. 334
I Wrote a Good Omelet	p. 337
Three/Quarters Time	p. 338
Cancers (not necessarily a love poem)	p. 339
A Word for Me ... Also	p. 341
I Am She (for Nancy)	p. 342
The Room With the Tapestry Rug	p. 343
Wild Flowers	p. 344
Love Thoughts	p. 345
You Were Gone	p. 346
A Song for New-Ark	p. 347
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (October 16, 1970)	p. 351
A Poem for langston hughes	p. 356
But Since You Finally Asked (A Poem Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon)	p. 357
Stardate Number 18628.190	p. 358
Brother Brother Brother (the Isley Brothers of Lincoln Heights)	p. 361
Afterword: Some Poems Are More Useful Than Others	p. 365
Notes to the Poems	p. 369
Index of Titles	p. 439
Index of First Lines	p. 446
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
1968-1998

On Hearing
"The Girl with
the Flaxen Hair"

He has a girl who has flaxen hair
My woman has hair of gray
I have a woman who wakes up at dawn
His girl can sleep through the day

His girl has hands soothed with perfumes sweet
she has lips soft and pink
My woman's lips burn in midday sun
My woman's hands--black like ink

He can make music to please his girl
Night comes I'm tired and beat
He can make notes, make her heart beat fast
Night comes I want off my feet

Maybe if I don't pick cotton so fast
Maybe I'd sing pretty too
Sing to my woman with hair of gray
Croon softly, Baby it's you

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
1968-1998. Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.