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jesssalexander's review against another edition
3.0
Nikki Giovanni is wise and strong and she turns the English language into a song without having to use flowery or fanciful language.
The poems written for Maya Angelou were cool because I had read I Know Why the Caged Sings last year. I read a version of Giovanni's book that included her love poems and A Good Cry, and I liked the Love Poems a lot more because they resonated with me on a more personal level. From a Good Cry, Leap was one of my favorite poems. Just a stark and beautiful and creative way to express her desire for racial reconciliation.
Her space exploration bit is odd but I liked it. She makes a good argument! Where have the explorers gone!? The sense of adventure!? Life is so much richer than the money we can make and I agree with her that modern culture has lost that. This is maybe my favorite line from the whole collection:
"We seek Antarctica because poetry gave birth to math and science, not the other way around."
The strangest poem for me was the one where she is talking about love and equating it to her being a steak on a plate that used to be a cow that was friends with the prairie dogs and what not. But now she's a steak and he is smiling down at the steak with love on his face. Weird.
The poems written for Maya Angelou were cool because I had read I Know Why the Caged Sings last year. I read a version of Giovanni's book that included her love poems and A Good Cry, and I liked the Love Poems a lot more because they resonated with me on a more personal level. From a Good Cry, Leap was one of my favorite poems. Just a stark and beautiful and creative way to express her desire for racial reconciliation.
Her space exploration bit is odd but I liked it. She makes a good argument! Where have the explorers gone!? The sense of adventure!? Life is so much richer than the money we can make and I agree with her that modern culture has lost that. This is maybe my favorite line from the whole collection:
"We seek Antarctica because poetry gave birth to math and science, not the other way around."
The strangest poem for me was the one where she is talking about love and equating it to her being a steak on a plate that used to be a cow that was friends with the prairie dogs and what not. But now she's a steak and he is smiling down at the steak with love on his face. Weird.
soundslikeashley's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't read a full book of poetry probably since I was in college. This book was so refreshing to read, especially now. I purchased this book at the NJEA Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration in January 2018 where Ms. Giovanni was the keynote speaker. Afterward I stood in line and had her sign it. I'm so glad because our elders of the written word are leaving us one by one and I wanted to have that moment to remember.
A Good Cry feels like a warm afternoon on a veranda, sipping lemonade and watching nature do its thing. Giovanni gives us glimpses and snatches of her life from childhood until now and they are glorious. Some of the poems I feel like you had to be there or do a bit of research to understand their full context but for the most part there was something revelatory or relatable in most of the poems.
I underlined quite a few beautiful lines. I pray to one day write with as much confidence and style as Nikki Giovanni.
A Good Cry feels like a warm afternoon on a veranda, sipping lemonade and watching nature do its thing. Giovanni gives us glimpses and snatches of her life from childhood until now and they are glorious. Some of the poems I feel like you had to be there or do a bit of research to understand their full context but for the most part there was something revelatory or relatable in most of the poems.
I underlined quite a few beautiful lines. I pray to one day write with as much confidence and style as Nikki Giovanni.
orsayor's review against another edition
3.0
Nikki is an Icon to me but with that being said - I couldn't connect this book. I read it a second time since it's a quick read to see if I would have a different feeling about it - Nope!
It's not a bad read but I know what Nikki is capable of and this book didn't hit that mark for me.
It's not a bad read but I know what Nikki is capable of and this book didn't hit that mark for me.
chandraleereads's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t enjoy this book of poems as much as I would have liked. There were a few poems that really moved me, but overall it was okay.
angelreadsthings's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars. It took awhile for me to feel emotionally invested in any of these poems. The ones that did grip me were those that seemed the most simple on the surface but which were imbued with a lot of heart.