Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems
When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and influential poets of the era. Now, Giovanni continues to stand as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape.\ In a career spanning over thirty years, Giovanni has created a body of work that's become vital and essential to our American consciousness. This collection of new poems...
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When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and influential poets of the era. Now, Giovanni continues to stand as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape.In a career spanning over thirty years, Giovanni has created a body of work that's become vital and essential to our American consciousness. This collection of new poems is a masterpiece that explores the ecstatic union between self and community. Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is an extraordinarily intimate collection. Each poem bears our revered cultural icon's trademark of the unfalteringly political and the intensely personal: The elegant "What We Miss" exalts the might and grace of women, while "Swinging on a Rainbow" rejoices about the spaces in which we read; Giovanni commemorates Africa and her family legacy in the majestic "Symphony of the Sphinx" and contemplates our America in the heartbreaking "Desperate Acts" and "9:11:01 He Blew It." And in the dreamy "Making James Baldwin" and dazzling "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea," Giovanni gives us reason to comfort, to share, to love, to change and to be human. Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is Nikki Giovanni's meditation on humanity and soul. It's her revelatory gaze at the world in which we live — and her confession on the world she dreams we will one day call home. Nikki Giovanni is a national treasure as she once again confirms her place as one of America's most powerful truth tellers and beloved daughters.Essence“One of her best collections to date.”
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea\ Poems and Not Quite Poems \ Possum Crossing\ \ Backing out the driveway\ the car lights cast an eerie glow\ in the morning fog centering\ on movement in the rain slick street\ Hitting brakes I anticipate a squirrel or a cat or sometimes\ a little raccoon\ I once braked for a blind little mole who try though he did\ could not escape the cat toying with his life\ Mother-to-be possum occasionally lopes home ... being\ naturally ... slow her condition makes her even more ginger\ We need a sign POSSUM CROSSING to warn coffee-gurgling\ neighbors:\ we share the streets with more than trucks and vans and\ railroad crossings\ All birds being the living kin of dinosaurs\ think themselves invincible and pay no heed\ to the rolling wheels while they dine\ on an unlucky rabbit\ I hit brakes for the flutter of the lights hoping it's not a deer\ or a skunk or a groundhog\ coffee splashes over the cup which I quickly put away from me\ and into the empty passenger seat\ I look ...\ relieved and exasperated ...\ to discover I have just missed a big wet leaf\ struggling ... to lift itself into the wind\ and live\ Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea\ Poems and Not Quite Poems. Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea1Possum Crossing5A Robin's Nest in Snow6The Wind in the Bottle7Rosa Parks8What We Miss10In the Spirit of Martin12BLK History Month14Shoulders Are For Emergencies Only15I Always Think of Meatloaf16Symphony of the Sphinx19Cal Johnson Park in Knoxville, Tennessee21Aunt Daughter and That Glorious Song22Blackberry Cobbler25The Son of the Sun26No Complaints28Here's to Gwen30The train to Knoxville32Twenty Reasons to Love Richard Williams34Another Aretha Poem36Ann's Poem38A Community of Clouds39Swinging on a Rainbow40For Tony and Betty41Word Olympics42Desperate Acts459:11:01 He Blew It46The Self-Evident Poem50Have Dinner with Me51My America53The Girls in the Circle57The Meadow Throws A Birthday Party58A Very Special Christmas60Bring On The Bombs65Making James Baldwin73Beamer Ball77Susan Smith80Emerson Edward Rudd82Art Sanctuary87Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie88From Whence Cometh My Help91A Miracle for Me93A Deer in Headlights95The Nashville Connection102Redfish, Eels, and Heidi105In Praise of a Teacher108Don't Think109The Song of the Feet110
\ Essence“One of her best collections to date.”\ \ \ \ \ Booklist“An embracing, uplifting, and sustaining voice.”\ \ \ VOYAGiovanni's latest poetry book must have been written for just for this reviewer. Its subject matter, its regional views, and its political agenda are aimed in this direction. Arranged in six untitled sections whose themes are not self-evident, the poems take an artifact from life and examine its cultural impact. For example, Giovanni captures her grandmother's wisdom through the image of a colander full of blackberries. Likewise, she laments the tragedy of September 11 through the loss felt by unattended pets of the victims. Whether the poem is about things, such as a park in Knoxville, a robin's nest in snow, the latest Harry Potter movie, or people, such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Williams (father of Serena and Venus), and Aretha Franklin, the poet examines the culture surrounding them. Her poems are eulogies and proclamations. For example, in "In the Spirit of Martin," she writes, "How much pressure / does the Earth exert on carbon / to make a diamond / This is a sacred poem / open your arms / turn your palms up / feel the Spirit of Greatness / and be redeemed." It will be easy for any reader to find himself or herself in Giovanni's work. As she says in her poem to Emerson Edward Rudd, "Thank you for finding yourself in my poetry." VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P S A/YA (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2002, HarperCollins, 110p, Reddy-Damon\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalParticularly in light of the recent deaths of June Jordan and Gwendolyn Brooks, readers might well look to Giovanni as spokeswoman for the black experience. And, at times, she captures it, effectively representing "all the women who said Baby, Baby, Baby I know you didn't mean to lose your job...I know you didn't mean to gamble the rentmoney I know you didn't mean to hit me." A recent poem, "Have Dinner with Me," written after the World Trade Center collapsed, is a modern masterpiece. Unfortunately, too many of these poems, though themselves strong, seem intent on rehashing the 1950s political climate. And the "Not Quite Poems" predominate. These proselike pieces include childhood memoirs that draw the reader clearly into her experiences, and there is a delightful spoof on what the movie of Harry Potter should have been, but elegiac tributes and political diatribes fare less well. "I keep trying to learn something new so I can share what I am learning," she writes in a letter-poem to a convict on death row. While the effort is to be praised, she too often comes up with insights readers have absorbed a long time ago. For larger collections.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Booklist"An embracing, uplifting, and sustaining voice."\ \ \ \ \ Essence"One of her best collections to date."\ \
