Nikki+Giovanna

"Nikki Giovanni." //Poetry Foundation//. 2015 Poetry Foundation, 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.

By: KeAhnna Johnson A3 Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. was born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She attended Fisk University and graduated in 1967. While at Fisk University she served as the editor for the campus's literary magazine. Her goal was to create a strong African American voice throughout her school so she revived the Fisk chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). After graduating with honors, she lived in Cincinnati. She is one of the most prominent African-American poets of the 1960s and 1970s due to her experiences and how she crafted them into seamless poems. Her inspiration to become a poet came from her maternal grandmother. Explaining in an interview, “I come from a long line of storytellers.” She was very proud of her black heritage and wanted to create a positive legacy for her race.

Some people forget that love is tucking you in and kissing you "Good night" no matter how young or old you are
 * Love Is**

Some people don't remember that love is listening and laughing and asking questions no matter what your age

Few recognize that love is commitment, responsibility no fun at all unless

Love is You and me

By far, I consider myself an emotional person and I’m in obsessed with the idea of love, and that’s what this whole poem explains. It answers the question, “What is love?” Love has many different aspects that people tend to forget. It is obviously stated in the first line. “Some people forget that love is” is a huge assumption that is then supported by what love is to the poet. Her diction includes some common actions like ,”tucking”, “kissing”, “listening”, and “asking”. All of the actions are only done when somebody cares for another person or is interested in someone’s well-being. By knowing that, Giovanni makes it clear that love is all about being generous with one’s time and putting the one you love as a top priority. She insinuates that in love the actions that may seem like the little things are necessary to create an unbreakable bond. Giovanni makes this poem relatable which is the strongest way she connects to her audience. In today’s society the dictionary’s definition of love is broad. It usually raises more questions than it actually answers. Giovanni beautifully crafted the definition of love to her own personal experiences and gave examples that any person, no matter the age, can understand. She reminds her audience that her message can be comprehended by any age in lines 4 and 9. At first I was confused to why she repeated herself in these lines but I soon realized she wanted to allude that love does not judge. She includes “no matter” in both lines 4 and 9 to emphasize the words “no matter.” In any case of real love, it will still survive. Love is truly unconditional. Giovanni simply uses this poem to define what love is to her. Her organization is another major element she manipulates to make her point. This poem only has 4 short stanzas but actually goes through the building blocks of love. The first stanza focuses on the physical ways to show love. The second stanza focuses on the actions that are done when interested in someone’s life. The third stanza focuses on the deeper aspects of love. The part that infamously known for hardships and heartache. Giovanni divides the lines of her poem up to make the reader pause because when in love people seem to rush but she forces the reader to take time and to understand each line. The last stanza is created just for Giovanni’s happiness. She brings just a little bit more of her life into the poem by referring to herself and another person by saying, “You and me” in line 15. //Huffington Post//. 2016 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. I'm not lonely sleeping all alone you think i'm scared but i'm a big girl i don't cry or anything
 * I'm not lonely**

I have a great big bed to roll around in and lots of space and i don't dream bad dreams like i used to have that you were leaving me anymore

Now that you're gone i don't dream and no matter what you think i'm not lonely sleeping all alone

This is the ultimate break up poem. I only believe that because in this 20 line poem, Giovanni is able to go through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Lines 1 and 2 express the girl’s denial of not feeling pain from the relationship. It is evident she is trying to deny her pain by Giovanni isolating “sleeping all alone.” Giovanni makes that statement one whole line. She tries to expose the truth of the girl’s emotions. Anger is revealed in the poem throughout lines 3-5. “You think i’m scared” may seem like a form of attack to whoever the speaker is addressing but is actually more of a form of retaliation. The speaker is angry that their heart is broken and she is trying to make sure she isn’t perceived as weak. The whole second stanza seems to be bargaining because the speaker is telling the audience all the benefits of her solitude. She finally gets to enjoy her, “great big bead.” Lines 14-17 express the speaker’s depression. She finally confronts her mate for being absent with the statement, “now that you are gone.” Finally the speaker comes to accept that her mate is gone and she is actually lonely. By saying that she isn’t so many times throughout the poem only exposes her true feelings of being lonely. In a relationship a form of co-dependence is usually created, and when that relationship ends there is typically one person who suffers more than the other. When I first read the poem, I came to the conclusion that it was meant to be motivating. A woman overcoming the trials of a meaningful relationship that has ended but when I read it over I learned that Giovanni made a poem where a girl is struggling not to be the person who is suffering from a relationship. The poem’s title is the first indicator of the character trying to convince themselves that they are not in pain. “I’m not lonely” seems like an answer to a question that was asked. The tone is at first confidence but shifts to the then on permanent tone in the second stanza to uncertainty and resentment. The speaker is fighting to feel at peace by herself. //Huffington Post//. 2016 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. **Balancing** In life one is always balancing like we juggle our mothers against our fathers or one teacher against another (only to balance our grade average) 3 grains of salt to one ounce truth our sweet black essence or the funky honkies down the street and lately i've begun wondering if you're trying to tell me something we used to talk all night and do things alone together and i've begun (as a reaction to a feeling) to balance the pleasure of loneliness against the pain of loving you

Initially, I had so much trouble dissecting this masterful poem. Giovanni has a unique way to address all the facets of love through her poetry. In the theme, she seems to enjoy incorporating the highs and lows of relationships while shining light on a corresponding subject. Giovanni uses numerous metaphors all throughout this poem, this technique produces profound imagery, but the bigger goal of the comparisons are to illustrate the sheer struggle of balancing. Comparisons were her way to imply that balancing was a stressful but rewarding job. By weakly weaving the substances, “3 grains of salt to one once of truth” to represent salt as the negative but light problems that arise compared to the heavy truth that can become exposed. Other than the uneven distribution of salt and truth, through this metaphor, Giovanni really shares the ease of lies and deceit rather than harsh reality. When I pondered on this metaphor, it is easy to see how most people would share favoritism to that idea. Sometimes being blind is more comforting just because confrontation is avoided. Giovanni also shows a common action of almost every person to show the selfish ways of humans. The selfish act of causing problems between people like “teacher against another” or “juggling our fathers against our mothers” only for a personal gain. It is amazing to recognize almost all the elements of poetry in such a short piece but also can be very intimidating when trying to conduct an analysis. My immediate reaction for the last stanza was confusion because the last stanza correlates pleasure with loneliness and pain with love. By going back and trying to fully understand each metaphor that was used, I came to an interesting revelation for her final stanza. It gives the reader a sense of connection to situation that isn’t even theirs. The organization of this poem is also a creative but purposeful feature. Stanzas one to four all try to balance each other out by switching out having three to two lines in every other stanza, but it seems like Giovanni just let it go in stanza five through nine which displays in a the beginning of every relationship most intentions come to fruition but eventually laziness can take hold and it can become messy. In every relationship balancing is a very important task that must be perfected for a healthy bond or a poison will invade a relationship filled with doubt and uncertainty that can create nothing but distress for both people involved.

//Huffington Post//. 2016 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

**I wrote a good omelet** I wrote a good omelet...and ate a hot poem... after loving you Buttoned my car...and drove my coat home...in the rain... after loving you I goed on red...and stopped on green...floating somewhere in between... being here and being there... after loving you I rolled my bed...turned down my hair...slightly confused but...I don't care... Laid out my teeth...and gargled my gown...then I stood ...and laid me down... To sleep... after loving you

The most whimsical and creative poem I have discovered by this poet. The organization is jumbled and can be perceived as a hot mess but after thoroughly reading the poem, it is obvious the organization helps to show the chaotic and exciting feeling love can bring for a person. Being loved by someone is one of the greatest feelings a person can experience and like Beyoncé said, it is easy to be, “crazy in love” and obvious enough this poem shows the crazy that comes with being in love. The crazy that makes a person jumble their words and step into a world of confusion that only those two people can understand. Every detail in this poem contributes to that idea including the structure and tone. Giovanni goes through the motions of what may seem as a normal night but exchanges the logical action verbs for preceding logical verb in everything she does that day. Her diction is simply jumbled, she mixes words like “wrote” and “ate” in line 1 and 2. Although it is amusing in her approach, the effect makes the poem as a whole light-hearted. The poem is titled, “I wrote a good omelet” but should be named, “After loving you.” Those three words explain the meaning behind why Giovanni’s poem is scrambled, after purposely mixing two verbs, “after loving you,” always seems to follow. After loving the person she is talking about, nothing but confusion and rambling takes place by the author. The use of periods only emphasize that the poet never actually finishes her thoughts and is very indecisive about ending her daily activities. She makes the act of doing ordinary things vey drawn out in a way that symbolizes she never wants the love she is receiving to end. She mentions in line 12, that she is aware of how crazy she may seem but frankly, she doesn’t care. Love is taking hold of her, and judgement is the least of her worries. //Huffington Post//. 2016 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.