Customer Reviews

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (P.S.)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you held in your hands the five hundred plus pages in Nikki Giovanni?s latest work, you could count yourself lucky. Anytime a skilled poet looks back across life and shares pure insights with the world ? we are all lucky.

In Collected, we are treated to a view of the world that goes back to the sixties and takes rapid-fire photographs through the nineties.

Giovanni?s poetry ranges from sentimental and introspective to irreverent and militant. It is a broad range of feelings about love, prejudice, injustice and living in one?s own skin.

There are so many interesting entries in this book. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day deals with the frailty of human existence. For Harold Logan is dedicated to a man murdered after daring to open a Black club on Broadway. A Certain Peace talks about enjoying time alone and allowing others the freedom to do the same. All are good.

Rich with texture, Giovanni?s Collected feels like the opening of a soul. More and more and over and over, her poetry taps into the psyche and brings forth memories as much for Giovanni as for the reader.

While reading through this wonderfully assembled collection of poetry, it is fascinating to encounter the wonderful historical context that appears throughout the works, constantly placing the reader in the "here and now" of when the poem was written. Because of this Giovanni has become a controversial figure but to simply focus on her earlier "angry work" is to oversimplify her career and have a knee jerk reaction to the pieces which is WHAT IS INTENDED. Nikki said it herself that she didn't want white people examining her work and this is why, they cannot get past the threat that such anger possesses to see the root of the problem. Until this happens that idiotic one star reviews that have appeared on here will continue to do so. Open your minds people and examine your hearts to fully explore these works of genius.

Nikki Giovanni is our great national treasure; please read and remember!

Though each word elicits unknown tears, each line a pain inside the throat denied its cry, read her and find comfort with her, a comfort she gives without receiving.

Read our poet, again and now.

I refer to the 2003 HarperCOllins William Murrow publication, now reprinted with a (PS) apparently, but who can add to this collection, which itself was a reprint of the earlier Selected Poems, with the same Virginia Fowler brilliantly handling the insightful Introduction, the comprehensive chronology and the ample annotations. The annotations themselves are excellent, in particular for those who did not survive those times, and for those of us who somehow did.

Read Nikki once more, and remember, and rediscover our heart and our soul, the soul of our nation now so lost, bought, stole.

Read Nikki to remember. She is our brilliant and embracing mother, sister, friend, who invites us home to eat and to rest.

I bought this book for my English learners but I keep it for myself, to weep with Nikki once more. She is that beautiful, and wise, like a holy grand mother.

Get up. Stand up. As Maya would cry, Arise! And read Nikki once more, please, my good friend. We will get there together. All together.

And while you are at it, go ahead and pre-order the grateful re-issue of her old Folkways recording The Reason I Like Chocolate. She is very much present here within the mighty Amazon, seek her out and you will find your own heart and soul once again, though in pain, but with her you may weep once more, and discover warming comfort from our long and dry loneliness in this odd, exile and alien land which was once the land of our birth, and rejoice within her brave good humour.

Read my Nikki Giovanni.

Okay, I admit she is not everybody's cup of tea (obviously as one can see with that last review) but she does have her charm. Personally I love her later work. Her early work is okay, but I can't make a connection to it as I'm a product of the post-Civil Rights/Black Power era. Her voice during those years served it purpose in the way African American art sought to seek a no-nonsense approach to black life in America (which wasn't as peachy fun as it should have been). "Black Feeling/Black Talk" and "Black Judgment" are written statements against White Supremacy (which was the child of Social Darwinism). But in her later works in the 70s, you see a shift in her work. The Black Power movement had died down (it didn't die out though) and so I guessed the logical approach to her work would have had to change as well. And thankfully it did. Not to say that she had softened into a free-loving poet but that her passion (which is still evident today in this 63 year old woman) has changed in its subjects.

My favorite book of hers (which this collection includes) is "Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day", which was poignant and warm (while her earlier work had been provocative and hot). My second favorite book (which is not in this collection) is "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems" (even though her new book "Acolytes: Poems" is pretty wonderful too). Some poems are really a joy to read. I remember when I first read "Ego-Tripping"; I thought that the title was perfect for the poem (cause her ego was tripping). It's a poem about the contribution that Africa has given to Western Civilization. Egypt is in Africa not the Middle East! Hannibal was from Carthage, which means he was African! The poem made me think about the rich history and cultures of Africa that most tend to just glance over. African influence extends beyond the continent and into the lives of people all over. It's a stirring poem. I also like "Nikki-Rosa" with that statement "...black love is black wealth", speaking of the fact that for the things that African Americans didn't have in the past what they did have that mattered (which some feel is being lost) was close emotional ties within families and friendships in the black community. I recommend that people watch the movie "Lackawanna Blues" and then read "Nikki-Rosa" and see what I mean. Nikki Giovanni appeals to me as a human being and not as being part African American. Her words (especially her most recent work "Acolytes") talks to me as an individual writer. She lives a fulfilling life as a writer, teacher, mother, lover and I know that she would want every person who reads her work to see that and seek out a fulfilling life for themselves.

Wonderful FULL synopsis of this woman's prolific career. The best of the Nikki Giovanni anthologies out there. I fully recommend this book if you want to support this poet.

There are no words that can really and truly describe this womans talent. She is one of the greatest poets of all time. But, the book arrived in good condition and I will be reading this for a very long time.

Her words were always her words, her voice was always evident in each word she put to paper. I heard her speak at a Writer's Workshop seminar at the University of Cincinnati when I was a senior in High School. She shares the same birthday as another one of my favorites (Prince)and she writes about her experiences as a person of color and as a product of her enviroment. Everyone comes from some place, and in her works you will get to see this place and meet the people and part of you will feel as if you grew up with her. This is a definite must have for anyone looking for the best of the comtemporary poets. You won't be disappointed.

Nikki Giovanni is a writer with her own kind of style. I thought that this book expressed what kind of person that she is. Many poems in this book were about Black Culture. I would recommend this poem to anybody who is intrested in learning about black people and their struggles.

I'm very upset at the fact that I NEVER RECEIVED MY BOOK FROM THE SELLER! Amazon is usually my go-to when it comes to hard-to-find titles, and reasonable (at times, dirt cheap) prices. I was very disappointed with the seller's service, and I may have to be more wary with future purchases. It's a shame, because I know that the book is awesome! Nikki Giovanni is one of my favorites! I hope I receive this book sooner than later....STILL WAITING!

This woman promotes overt racism in the same catagory as Rev. Wright.
If you want to read poems about teaching black kids to kill white people
then this is the book for you.