The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni

by Giovanni, Nikki

• ISBN13: 9780688140472
• ISBN10: 0688140475
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-06-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged from the Black Rights Movement in the late 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and controversial poets of the era. Finally, here is the first compilation of Nikki Giovanni's poetry. It is the testimony of a life's work from one of the commanding voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape at the end of the twentieth century.From the revolutionary "The Great Pax Whitie" and "Poem for Aretha" to the sublime "Ego Tripping" and the tender "My House," these 150 mind-speaking, truth-telling poems are at once powerful yet sensual, angry yet affirming. Arranged chronologically, they reflect the changes Giovanni has endured as a Black woman, lover, mother, teacher, and poet. Here is the evocation of a nation's past and present -- intensely personal and fiercely political -- from one of our most compassionate, outspoken observers.

Author Biography

Nikki Giovanni is a professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 1
Chronology	p. 12
Stardate Number 18628.190	p. 19
Detroit Conference of Unity and Art	p. 23
On Hearing "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair"	p. 24
You Came, Too	p. 25
Poem (For BMC No. 1)	p. 26
Poem (For BMC No. 2)	p. 27
Poem (For PCH)	p. 28
Poem (No Name No. 1)	p. 29
Poem (For BMC No. 3)	p. 30
Black Separatism	p. 31
Poem (No Name No. 2)	p. 32
Poem (No Name No. 3)	p. 33
I'm Not Lonely	p. 34
For an Intellectual Audience	p. 35
Black Power	p. 36
Seduction	p. 37
Word Poem	p. 38
Poem for Black Boys	p. 39
The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.	p. 41
Nikki-Rosa	p. 42
The Great Pax Whitie	p. 43
Intellectualism	p. 46
Universality	p. 47
Knoxville, Tennessee	p. 48
Adulthood	p. 49
Dreams	p. 51
Revolutionary Music	p. 52
Beautiful Black Men	p. 54
Woman Poem	p. 55
For Saundra	p. 58
Balances	p. 60
For Theresa	p. 61
My Poem	p. 63
For Tommy	p. 67
No Reservations	p. 68
Alone	p. 70
For Two Jameses	p. 71
Autumn Poems	p. 72
Rain	p. 73
Housecleaning	p. 74
Poem For Aretha	p. 75
Revolutionary Dreams	p. 79
Walking Down Park	p. 80
Kidnap Poem	p. 83
The Geni In The Jar	p. 84
All I Gotta Do	p. 85
Master Charge Blues	p. 87
For A Lady Of Pleasure Now Retired	p. 88
Alabama Poem	p. 90
Ego Tripping	p. 92
Poem For Flora	p. 94
Sometimes	p. 95
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like	p. 96
How Do You Write A Poem?	p. 97
And Sometimes I Sit	p. 99
I Want To Sing	p. 100
Ever Want To Crawl	p. 101
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis	p. 105
Legacies	p. 113
Mothers	p. 114
Winter Poem	p. 116
Conversation	p. 117
Rituals	p. 119
The World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be	p. 120
The Butterfly	p. 121
I Remember	p. 122
A Certain Peace	p. 124
When I Nap	p. 125
Just a New York Poem	p. 126
[Untitled]	p. 128
The Wonder Woman	p. 129
Categories	p. 130
Scrapbooks	p. 132
When I Die	p. 135
[Untitled] (For Margaret Danner)	p. 137
My Tower	p. 138
Poem (For Nina)	p. 139
Africa I	p. 140
Africa II	p. 141
They Clapped	p. 143
Poem (For Anna Hedgeman and Alfreda Duster)	p. 145
Atrocities	p. 146
We	p. 148
My House	p. 149
The Women Gather	p. 153
Once A Lady Told Me	p. 155
Each Sunday	p. 156
The December Of My Springs	p. 158
The Life I Led	p. 159
The Way I Feel	p. 161
Communication	p. 162
Luxury	p. 163
Poem	p. 164
Hampton, Virginia	p. 165
Poetry Is a Trestle	p. 166
Something To Be Said For Silence	p. 167
Africa	p. 169
Swaziland	p. 171
A Very Simple Wish	p. 172
Night	p. 174
Poetry	p. 175
Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day	p. 179
Introspection	p. 182
Forced Retirement	p. 184
The New Yorkers	p. 187
Crutches	p. 191
Boxes	p. 193
Poem	p. 195
A Poem Off Center	p. 198
Age	p. 200
Life Cycles	p. 203
Adulthood II	p. 205
Habits	p. 207
Gus	p. 210
Choices	p. 214
Photography	p. 216
The Beep Beep Poem	p. 217
Woman	p. 219
Poem (for EMA)	p. 220
The Rose Bush	p. 222
Patience	p. 223
Make Up	p. 224
Winter	p. 226
You Are There	p. 227
Turning (I need a better title)	p. 229
A Poem of Friendship	p. 231
Being and Nothingness	p. 232
The Moon Shines Down	p. 233
That Day	p. 234
Charting the Night Winds	p. 239
Lorraine Hansberry	p. 241
Hands: For Mother's Day	p. 245
This Is Not for John Lennon	p. 248
Mirrors	p. 251
Linkage	p. 254
Charles White	p. 257
The Drum	p. 259
A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy	p. 260
Eagles	p. 261
Her Cruising Car	p. 262
Harvest	p. 266
Sky Diving	p. 269
A Journey	p. 270
Resignation	p. 271
I Wrote a Good Omelet	p. 274
Three/Quarters Time	p. 275
Cancers	p. 276
I Am She	p. 278
You Were Gone	p. 279
A Poem for langston hughes	p. 283
But Since You Finally Asked	p. 287
Title Index	p. 289
First Line Index	p. 291
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The Selected Poems of Nikki GiovanniOn 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

Copyright ) 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1995, 1996 by Nikki GiovanniThe Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni 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.