Nikki Giovanni Quotes

The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.

...i believe
the most beautiful poem
...is your heart
racing

Black love is Black wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood
and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy

...how else
to spend
a rainy day
other than with you
seeking sun and stars
and heavenly bodies

<TABLE><TR><TD> Paint me Hopeful </TD><TD> Paint Me Futuristic </TD><TD> Paint Me Nikki </TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD> I'm a Poet</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>

then I awoke and dug
that if i dreamed natural
dreams of being a natural
woman doing what a woman
does...
i would have a revolution

...i sit waiting
for a fresh thought
to stir the atmosphere

Poets shouldn't commit suicide. That would leave the world to those without imaginations or hearts. That would bequeath to the world a mangled syntax and no love of champagne. Poets must live in misery and ecstasy, to sing a song with the katydids. Poets should be ashamed to die before they kiss the sun.

if nature is true
we shall all lose our eyes
since we cannot even now distinguish
the good from the evil
...i've a mind to build
a new world
want to play

We need food for the Soul We need poetry ... We deserve poetry

There is a game I must tell you of
It's called Catch the Leader Lying
(and knowing your sense of the absurd
you will enjoy this)
...
You must invent your own games and teach us old
ones how to play

I'm a big fan of the black woman and so I'm always looking at aspects of the black woman--what she's doing and how she does it.

how do you write a poem
about someone so close
...don't you already know
what i feel and if
you don't maybe
i should check my feelings

if it does not sing discard the ear
for poetry is song
if it does not delight discard
the heart for poetry is joy
if it does not inform then close
off the brain for it is dead
if it cannot heed the insistent message
that life is preciouswhich is all we poets
wrapped in our loneliness
are trying to say

they say you should fight the cold with the cold
but since i never do anything right
i called you