Introduction by Virginia C. Fowler
Chronology
Black Feeling Black Talk
Detroit Conference of Unity and Art (For HRB)
On Hearing “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”
You Came, Too
Poem (For TW)
Poem (For BMC No. 1)
Our Detroit Conference (For Don L. Lee)
Poem (For Dudley Randall)
Poem (For BMC No. 2)
Personae Poem (For Sylvia Henderson)
Poem (For PCH)
Poem (No Name No. 1)
Poem (For BMC No. 3)
Black Separatism
A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails (For Barbara Crosby)
Poem (No Name No. 2)
The True Import of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro (For Peppe, Who Will Ultimately Judge Our Efforts)
A Short Essay of Affirmation Explaining Why (With Apologies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Poem (No Name No. 3)
Wilmington Delaware
Letter to a Bourgeois Friend Whom Once I Loved (And Maybe Still Do If Love Is Valid)
I’m Not Lonely
Love Poem (For Real)
For an Intellectual Audience
Black Power (For All the Beautiful Black Panthers East)
Seduction
Word Poem (Perhaps Worth Considering)
Black Judgement
The Dance Committee (Concerning Jean-Lon Destin)
Of Liberation
Poem for Black Boys (With Special Love to James)
Concerning One Responsible Negro with Too Much Power
Reflections on April 4, 1968
The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Litany for Peppe
Nikki-Rosa
The Great Pax Whitie
Intellectualism
Universality
Knoxville, Tennessee
Records
Adulthood (For Claudia)
From a Logical Point of View
Dreams
Revolutionary Music
Beautiful Black Men (With compliments and apologies to all not mentioned by name)
Woman Poem
Ugly Honkies, or The Election Game and How to Win It
Cultural Awareness
For Saundra
Balances
For a Poet I Know
For Teresa
My Poem
Black Judgements (Of bullshit niggerish ways)
Re: Creation
For Tommy
Two Poems: From Barbados
For Harold Logan Murdered by “persons unknown” cause he wanted to own a Black club on Broadway
No Reservations (for Art Jones)
Alone
For Two Jameses (Ballantine and Snow) In iron cells
For Gwendolyn Brooks
Autumn Poems
Rain
Poem for Lloyd
Housecleaning
Poem for Aretha
Revolutionary Dreams
Walking Down Park
Kidnap Poem
The Genie in the Jar (for Nina Simone)
All I Gotta Do
The Game Of Game
Master Charge: Blues
The Lion In Daniel’s Den (for Paul Robeson, Sr.)
For A Lady of Pleasure Now Retired
2nd Rapp
A Robin’s Poem
Alabama Poem
Poem For Unwed Mothers (to be sung to “The Old F.U. Spirit”)
12 Gates: To The City
Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)
A Poem/Because It Came As A Surprise To Me
Oppression
Toy Poem
Some Uses For Them Not Stated
Poem For Flora
Sometimes
Poem For My Nephew (Brother C. B. Soul)
Yeah But
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like
How Do You Write A Poem?
And Sometimes I Sit
I Want To Sing
Ever Want To Crawl
My House
Legacies
Mothers
A Poem for Carol (May She Always Wear Red Ribbons)
A Fishy Poem
Winter Poem
Conversation
Rituals
Poem for Stacia
The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be
The Only Song I’m Singing
The Butterfly
I Remember
A Certain Peace
When I Nap
Mixed Media
Just a New York Poem
[Untitled]
The Wonder Woman (A New Dream for Stevie Wonder)
Categories
Straight Talk
Scrapbooks
When I Die
[Untitled] (For Margaret Danner)
My Tower (For Barb and Anthony)
Poem (For Nina)
Africa I
Africa II
They Clapped
Poem (For Anna Hedgeman and Alfreda Duster)
Atrocities
Nothing Makes Sense
I Laughed When I Wrote It (Don’t You Think It’s Funny?)
On Seeing Black Journal and Watching Nine Negro Leaders “Give Aid and Comfort to the Enemy” to Quote Richard Nixon
And Another Thing
We
The Women and the Men
The Women Gather (for Joe Strickland)
Once a Lady Told Me
Each Sunday
The December of My Springs
The Life I Led
Mother’s Habits
The Way I Feel
Communication
Luxury
Poem
Hampton, Virginia
Poetry Is a Trestle
The Laws of Motion (for Harlem Magic)
Something to Be Said for Silence
Africa
Swaziland
A Very Simple Wish
Night
Poetry
Always There Are the Children
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
Introspection
Forced Retirement
The New Yorkers
Crutches
Boxes
A Poem Off Center
The Winter Storm
Age
Because
Their Fathers
Life Cycles
Adulthood II
Habits
Fascinations
Gus (for my father)
Choices
Photography
The Beep Beep Poem
A Poem for Ed and Archie
Woman
Space
Poem (for EMA)
The Rose Bush (for Gordon)
Patience
Make Up
Winter
You Are There
A Statement on Conservation
Turning (I need a better title)
A Response (to the rock group Foreigner)
A Poem of Friendship
Being and Nothingness (to quote a philosopher)
The Moon Shines Down
That Day
Those Who Ride the Night Winds
Charting the Night Winds
Lorraine Hansberry: An Emotional View
Hands: For Mother’s Day
This Is Not for John Lennon (and this is not a poem)
Mirrors (for Billie Jean King)
Linkage (for Phillis Wheatley)
Charles White
The Drum (for Martin Luther King, Jr.)
A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Eagles (a poem for Lisa)
Flying Underground (for the children of Atlanta)
Her Cruising Car: A Portrait of Two Small Town Girls
The Cyclops in the Ocean
Harvest (for Rosa Parks)
Reflections/On a Golden Anniversary
Love: Is a Human Condition
Sky Diving
A Journey
Resignation
I Wrote a Good Omelet
Three/Quarters Time
Cancers (not necessarily a love poem)
A Word for Me Also
I Am She (for Nancy)
The Room With the Tapestry Rug
Wild Flowers
Love Thoughts
You Were Gone
A Song for New-Ark
Occasional Poems
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (October 16, 1970)
A Poem for langston hughes
But Since You Finally Asked (A Poem Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon)
Stardate Number 18628.190
Brother Brother Brother (the Isley Brothers of Lincoln Heights)
Afterword: Some Poems Are More Useful Than Others
Notes to the Poems
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines
About the Author
Other Books by Nikki Giovanni
Copyright
About the Publisher