i remember
i remember learning you jump
in your sleep and smile
when you wake up
at first you cuddle
then one arm across my stomach
then one leg touching my leg then
you turn your back
but you smile when you wake up
i was surprised to know you don't care
if your lamp burns all night and that you could
play ohmeohmy over and over again just
because you remembered
i discovered you don't like hair
in your bathroom sink and never step
your wet feet onto a clean rug
you will answer your phone
but you don't talk too long and you do
rub my toes and make faces
while you talk
and your voice told her anyway
that i was there
you can get up at three and make sandwiches
and orange juice and tell jokes
you sometimes make incoherent sentences
you snore
and you smile when you wake up
i know you cry when you're hurt
and curse when you're angry
and try when you don't feel
like it and smile at me
when you wake up
these things i learned through
a simple single touch
when fleshes clashed
--nikki giovannireading, anything concerning philosophy, quantum physics, shopping, traveling (except when i have to fly!), listening to music, spending quality time with myself, debating, solving logic puzzles great music @ tastefullicks.com
I'd like to meet:
NO IMAGES
She does not know
Her beauty,
She thinks her brown skin
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked,
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river
She would know.
But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dish water gives back no images.
-William Waring Cuney
how do you write a poem how do you write a poem
about someone who is so close
to you that when you say ahhhhh
they say chuuuu
what can they ask you to put
on paper that isn't already written
on your face
and does the paper make it
any more real
that without them
life would be not
impossible but certainly
more difficult
and why would someone need
a poem to say when i come
home if you're not there
i search the air
for your scent
would i search any less
if i told the world
i don't care at all
and love is so complete
that touch or not we blend
to teach others the things
that matter aren't all about
baaaanging (i can be baaaanged all
day long) but finding a spot
where i can be free
of all the physical
and emotional bullshit
and simply sit with a cup
of coffee and say to you
"i'm tired" don't you know
those are my love words
to say to you "how was your
day" doesn't that show
i care or say to you " we lost
a friend" and not want to share
that loss with strangers
don't you already know
what i feel and if
you don't maybe
i should check my feelings
--nikki giovanni
Music:
Friends of Distinction, Otis Redding, Thelonious Monk, Indigo Girls, Switch, The System, The Gap Band, New Birth, Meshell Ndegeocello, Bilal, LTD, Dionne Farris, Zhane, Rakim and Eric B, Cameo, Roy Hargrove, Common, Sade, Norah Jones, Lauryn Hill, Shirley Murdock, Rachelle Ferrell, Maxwell, The Isley Brothers, Bobby Womack, Dwele, John Coltrane, Prince, Chaka Khan (esp. the Rufus days!), Fela Kuti, MosDef, Mint Condition, EarthWindandFire, Stevie Wonder, etc., etc., I'm getting tired of naming people! To sum it up, I enjoy old school music and will listen to some of today's stuff if it has a message...
Movies:
Malcolm X, The Matrix Trilogy, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Vanilla Sky, The Little Rascals, She Hate Me, The Sweetest Thing, Coming to America, Singin' in the Rain, The Color Purple, School Daze, Boomerang, G.I. Jane, The Departed, etc., etc., Once again, I'm tired of naming them!
Television:
Flip That House; The Food Network; The Boondocks; Suite 62 (i guess that counts!); poker tournaments; ESPN; The History Channel; Discovery Health Channel...what can i say, i have a thirst for knowledge and a dry sense of humor...Oh...and i miss all the old PBS educational shows--they need to bring them back!!
Books:
The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double Dutch to Hip-Hop; When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost : My Life as A Hip Hop Feminist; Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color among African Americans; Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America; Naked: Black Women Bare All about Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts;It's the Little Things; Don't Play in the Sun; The Souls of Black Folk; Socrates to Sartre; Eveything But the Burden; 1984; What You Owe Me; The Matrix and Philosophy; Lord of the Flies; The Inferno (Dante Aligheri); Queen of the Damned; Black Like Me; The Color Purple; The Feast of All Saints; The Temple of My Familiar; Black Religion and Black Radicalism; The Isis Papers; Racism or Attitude; Logic for College Students; African-Americans and the Muslim Experience
Heroes:
The Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam), my grandmother, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rev. Chatmon (VUU!), W. E. B. DuBois, black women in general, Nikki Giovanni, ...still thinking
