Bicycles
IN A CAREER THAT HAS EARNED her accolades, honorary degrees, and awards from both fellow poets and everyday poetry lovers, Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, inform and inspire. Sometimes controversial, sometimes ethereal, but always beautiful, her poems move readers of all hues and generations.\ With Bicycles, she's collected poems that serve as a companion to her 1997 Love Poems. An instant classic, that book—romantic, bold, and...
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IN A CAREER THAT HAS EARNED her accolades, honorary degrees, and awards from both fellow poets and everyday poetry lovers, Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, inform and inspire. Sometimes controversial, sometimes ethereal, but always beautiful, her poems move readers of all hues and generations. With Bicycles, she's collected poems that serve as a companion to her 1997 Love Poems. An instant classic, that book romantic, bold, and erotic expressed notions of love in ways that were delightful unexpected. In the years that followed, Giovanni experienced losses both public and private. A mother's passing, a sister's, too. A massacre on the campus at which she teaches. And just when it seemed life was spinning out of control, Giovanni rediscovered love what she calls the antidote. Here romantic love and all its manifestations, the physical touch, the emotional pull, the hungry heart is distilled as never before by one of our most talented poets.Essence“Easily one of [Giovanni’s] most powerful offerings to date.”
Bicycles\ Blacksburg Under Siege: 21 August 2006\ (for Carolyn Rude)\ Not safe . . . not even all that nice . . . when you think about it . . . What mean fraternity boys do with their fists . . . and drunk fraternity boys do with their penises . . . barefoot boys do with guns . . . Whether it's a redneck screaming "nigger" . . . or a poet hollering "titties" . . . illegal and unkind behavior tells someone s/he doesn't belong . . . check it . . . check it out . . .\ Not nice . . . No . . . And no reason to feel safe\ A good day . . . someone pointed out . . . however . . . to be black . . . or a woman . . . and not be hunted . . . and not have to hold your head down . . . and not have to quiver . . . when you pass a man . . . police . . . or professional . . . yet still knowing . . . at any given moment . . . you are a target . . .\ "They didn't move fast enough" . . . they cried . . . "They could have done more" . . . they demanded . . . "More to let us hold on to our illusions of safe . . . to let us hold on to our illusion of fair . . . to let us hold on to our illusions . . . illusions . . . illusions" . . . And whether it was a bullet flying or an animal cracker coming straight at you . . . it was an attack . . . And yes . . . maybe there could be faster motion . . . faster lockdown . . . faster dismissal . . . but hey there is the bigger picture . . . and after all he didn't mean it . . . his leg was sprained . . . he's so intelligent . . . so talented . . . so special . . . he didn't realize his heart was blind . . . he didn't understand he was causing pain . . . Bang! Bang . . . he sang . . . I shot you Down but I really didn't havea gun . . . and just because you're dead . . . doesn't mean I really did it . . .\ I shot the deputy . . . hey hey . . . he sings . . . but I only pretended with the rest of you\ And in the end he was very careful with himself . . . Sure not to be treated the way he treated McFarland and Sutphin . . . Avoiding the knockout blow or killer smile he dealt the man who came when he called "Help" . . . Silencing his victims with death for their goodwill and sense of decency . . . Or their pity for him . . . Do all the sane and sober things to protect yourself, Monster . . . so that you can plead Innocent By Reason of Not Paying Close Attention . . . Threaten us that you can make Blacksburg not ever be the same again . . .\ But we will be the same . . . willful ignorance will overpower indignation every time . . .\ That still does not make us nice . . . and it sure doesn't make us safe\ Bicycles. Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Blacksburg Under Siege: 21 August 2006 1In Simpler Times 3If Only 4Field Notes 6Migrations 8I Am Jazz 11Shoo Jazz Blue Jazz 12The 3rd Rail 13I Am Confused 15My New Car 16Dinner At Nine 17My Muse 19I Am Glass 21No Heaven 22Alehemical 23Your Shower 25Good Night 26My Sleep 28Bicycles 29I Like The Dance 31I Would Not Be Different 32Give It A Go? 34Another Day (Revisited) 36Christmas Laughter 39I Want A Shoe 41A Drunken Phone Call 43A Substitute For You 44I Know The Song 46I Am A Mirror 48Everything Good Is Simple 49Deal Or No Deal 50I Provide 52Gray Clouds Hover 54I Am The Ocean 55I Clean 57So Enchanted With You 59How To Save The World 61Free Huey 62My Beer 64They Think 66Why Don't You Love Me 67First Chair 69Friends and Lovers 71Love (And The Meaning Of Love) 72Flight Delay 73Travelers 74Trash Pans 75Letting The Air Out 76Fame 79Duets 81Boiled Blues 83Love Luther 86A Song For You 88Friends In Love 89No Translations 90Twirling 92Good Books 93Got A Minute (To Fall In Love?) 95Where Do Yon Enter 97Tourism 99The Scenic Route 100Tree Line 101The Artist 102A Fish Out of Water 105We Are Virginia Tech 107
\ Essence"Easily one of [Giovanni’s] most powerful offerings to date."\ \ \ \ \ Christian Science Monitor"Bicycles is powered as much by Giovanni’s warmth and authenticity as by her words."\ \
