<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></TA… - Nikki Giovanni

...do you ever stop
to think what it looked like
before it was an avenue
...ever look south
...and see gazelles running playfully
after the lions
...did you ever, sit down
and wonder about what freedom's freedom
would bring
...the , Alonquin
and ... could caress
the earthever think what Harlem would be
like if our herbs and roots and elephant ears
grew...
the parrot parroting ...ever think it's possible
for us to be
happy

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.

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