i hope my shoulder finds a head that needs nestling ...i hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live - Nikki Giovanni

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

let's build
what we become
when we dream

...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