Nikki Giovanni is now with the ancestors. Thank you for your life, Nikki, your poetry, your celebration of your Black self, your joy. Thank you for that laugh like the music of the sun breaking over our heads. I adored you when I was a yearning teen, a college kid with her fist in the air, a woman in love, a mother. Please say hello to Toni, Tina, Audre, Shay and all the literary godmothers who I like to imagine came to meet you, and are enfolding you now. It sure is lonely down here without you, but as someone said, your body may be beyond us, but all that love and joy and music in your words, you left them with us. Now, you get to rest. Walk good, beloved Poet. I think you always knew our love for you, and you gathered it in with those dancing eyes, those strong skinny arms, loving us right back.
Winter Poem by Nikki Giovanni
I've never heard of her but I love that poem. RIP Nikki.
ReplyDeletePixie, she has a wealth of poems, across all genres. This one seemed fitting for her earthly departure.
Deletethank you for this.
ReplyDeleteCandice, we mourn. But remembering her, we also smile.
DeleteOh my! How can you write a tribute that is both sad and comforting at the same time??? May she rest well and always be remembered.
ReplyDeletee, she certainly earned her rest. By me she will never be forgotten.
DeleteWhat a gorgeous gem of a poem. Canadian women who went to boring old UK dominated universities did not find this kind of poet. Thank you for the name and the reference. Off to find more gold and gems.
ReplyDeleteMary, she is wonderful. Enjoy your discoveries.
DeleteI had not heard yet of her death.
ReplyDeleteDamn. I always think of her as being as young as she was in the second picture you posted.
I am so very glad she was on this earth and was able to use her voice. I would like to think of her right now, dancing with Maya, singing joyfully with all of those godmothers.
Mary, I always think of her young, too, but I think that’s because her aura never aged. I think her secret was joy.
DeleteBeautiful tribute! So many now who have gone ahead of us to become ancestors. "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf" was my introduction to Nikki Giovanni in the 1970s. YouTube thought I might like listening to a conversation between her and James Baldwin. I'd not seen it before. It's both timely and timeless.
ReplyDeleteI love the winter poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGkNEt30Fo&t=1065s
am, it was Ntozake Shange who wrote for colored girls, another literary goddess. And that YouTube video of a young Nikki Giovanni in conversation with James Baldwin is extraordinary indeed.
DeleteO my goodness! What was I thinking? Thank you for the correction!
ReplyDeleteam, it’s all love. They both gifted us extravagantly. xor
DeleteI've never been a big fan of pestry but I do love that sweet little poem...and then I was a flower.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know her poetry but I've enjoyed the samples you have given us. I love that picture of her in the purple. So beautiful!
ReplyDelete