In a Dark Time … The Eye Begins to See

After 50+ years of attending school I find it difficult not to turn to literature when September approaches, and this year is no different than any other year. In fact, I started reading The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni over a week ago. I suspect that I was originally drawn to the collection by [...]

Giovanni’s poems in Re: Creation and My House tend to be less confrontational than her earlier poems, though they’re still there, like “Ugly Honkies, or The Election Game and How to Win It” with lines like “ever notice how it’s only the ugly/ honkies/ who hate/ like Hitler was an ugly dude/ same with lyndon/ [...]

I think I made it clear on my first two entries on The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 that I didn’t see myself as part of her intended audience. Despite the appeal of her clean, direct lines, she seemed to spend most of her career trying to appeal to particular groups that I’m not [...]