April Is National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month!


Today I spotlight a Revolutionary Poet who has played integral to my being. A Writer, Civil Rights Activist, and an Educator. That always incites the Pro-Blackness in me. Real, Dope, and Deep. The one and only Nikki Giovanni.


NIKKI GIOVANNI

EGO-TRIPPING
(There May Be A Reason)

I was born in the Congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with Allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is Nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the Nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the Sahara desert
with a packet of goat's meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can't catch me
For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son Hannibal an elephant
He gave me Rome for Mother's Day
My strength flows ever on
My son Noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was Jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filing from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the Arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach the east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was
laid across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission
I mean...I...can fly
like a bird in the sky...