The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni 1968-1998 hit me in ways I didn’t quite expect. One minute I felt challenged and the next comforted. Giovanni offers a beautiful ride that made me think, feel, and go numb at various points. I enjoyed Giovanni’s style of expressing both hard truths and easy familiarity, sometimes within the same poem. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni covered a wide span of her life’s work and demonstrates her growth over that time, as both a writer and a human being participating in the world. Giovanni’s poetry serves as a reminder that the work of becoming better citizens of the world, our communities, and our families as well as seeing the humanity within each of us, individually and collectively, show more is ongoing. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni explores the state of life from the personal to the international in poems that are a mix of blunt, suggestive, honest, and subversive. show less

What I found fascinating about this work is that you can truly see Giovanni's growth as a poet, not only in voice and strength of language, but in topics of choice. Because of that alone, I'd say it's worth the read for any aspiring poet (or even writer in general). From solely a reader's perspective, my feelings are a bit more mixed. Some of her simpler poems here feel more like mini-essays or brainstorms, and less finished than what I generally prefer. Yet, there are those poems (and quite a few of them) that beg for rereading, that I'll go back to again and again. And there are those which I've taught (most notably "Adulthood" and "Nikki-Rosa") which first drew me in, and which I've seen engage students and draw forth discussion over show more and over again. Lastly, and most surprisin on a personal note, I discovered I very much enjoy her few love poems. It seems that the poets who rarely write love poems write them most strikingly--perhaps because they're more aware of the dangers--but regardless, Giovanni's stand out. In closing, I recommend this to readers and perhaps especially writers of poetry, definately Teachers of poetry--there will admittedly be poems here you think nothing of, but there will be others that make this a worthwhile journey, whoever you are. show less

Andrew bought this lovely book for me for Christmas one year. Such an overwhelming block of Nikki all at once! I really must read this again, but slower. Maybe one collection at a time so that they might be more distinct in my mind.

The specific poems I particularly liked:
I'm Not Lonely
For Tommy
Alone
Master Charge: Blues
Legacies
Winter Poem
A Certain Peace
[Untitled] (page 163. "There is a hunger")
Poem (page 181 thinning hair)
The Way I Feel
Introspection
Choices
The Beep Beep Poem
Space
Make Up
Winter
Being and Nothingness
That Day
Charting the Night Winds
The Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Flying Underground (not a fan of the ellipses poems except this one)
Resignation
Wild Flowers
But Since You Finally Asked

Professor Giovanni, enough said!

Nikki has a wonderful way with words!!

I bought this at a book signing. I'm really not into poetry.