From the volume of poetry entitled “Black Judgement.” Published the same year as “Black Talk Black Feeling,” and distributed by one of the largest Black Publication during that time. The renowned Broadside Press.

Black Judgements

(Of bullshit niggerish ways)

You

with you bullshit niggerish ways

want to destroy me

You want to preach

responsible revolution

along with progressive

procreation

Your desires will not be honored

this season

Shivering under the armour

of your

white protector

fear not

for thou art evil

The audacity of wanting

to be near the life

of what you seek to kill

Can you love

can you hate

is your game any damn good

Black Judgements are upon you

Black Judgements are upon you

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My Poem

i am 25 years old

black female poet

wrote a poem asking

nigger can you kill

if they kill me

it won’t stop

the revolution

i have been robbed

it looked like they knew

that i was to be hit

they took my tv

my two rings

my piece of african print

and my two guns

if they take my life

it won’t stop
the revolution

my phone is tapped

my mail is opened

they’ve caused me to turn

on all my old friends

and all my new lovers

if i hate all black

people

and all negroes

it won’t stop

the revolution

i’m afraid to tell

my roommate where i’m going

and scared to tell

people if i’m coming

if i sit here

for the rest

of my life

it won’t stop

the revolution

if i never write

another poem

or short story

if i flunk out

of grad school

if my car is reclaimed

and my record player

won’t play

and if i never see

a peaceful day

or do a meaningful

black thing

it won’t stop

the revolution

the revolution

is in the streets

and if i stay on

the 5^th floor

it will go on

if i never do

anything

it will go on

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For a Poet I Know

if you sang songs i could make a request

does the same hold true of poems

i’d like a poem about me

i’m black and exist and for real

i’d like a poem about your uncle

who got out of his read to let us screw

yeah and maybe a poem

about how i tried

to talk to you one night

and you suggested i read my own poems

what were you really thinking

i’d like to hear a poem about your wig

everybody’s got a wig

aretha’s is on her head

james brown’s is humphrey

mine is columbia

yours is the college you teach at

or the people who sent you there

i want a poem telling how tired you are

of fucking women

and relating to your hospital

experiences

or maybe a poem about who you’d like

to lay beside and dream with

and a real long poem on what you dream about

i really need a rare book poem

and what they mean to you

and a new book poem about what you read

and a joe goncalves poem about a hardworking brother

and a carolyn rodgers poem about a beautiful sister

and a father poem for hoyt fuller

and a jet poem because we’ve never been in it

and a scared poem about me taking your clothes off

then offering an excuse

and a man poem about how you reached your Blackness

or perhaps an alcoholic poem about your mother

and a climbing poem about how you reached the heights

and a you poem mostly

cause your other poems

don’t tell me who you are

and i

having felt and tasted you know

what you should know and relate to

that you should write and are capable of writing

a tall lean explosive poem

not just a quiet half white hating poem

about a black poem

called a black poet

that i know and would like to love

again

The delicate balance of life

From Nikki Giovanni’s second self-published volume of poetry entitled “Black Judgement.”

Balances

in life

one is always

balancing

like we juggle our mothers

against our fathers

or one teacher

against another

(only to balance our grade average)

3 grains salt

to one once of truth

our sweet black essence

or the funky honkies down the street

and lately i’ve been wondering

if you’re trying to tell me something

we used to talk all night

and do things alone together

and i’ve begun

(as a reaction to a feeling)

to balance

the pleasure of loneliness

against the pain

of loving you

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For Saundra

i wanted to write

a poem

that rhymes

but revolution doesn’t lend

itself to be-bopping

then my neighbor

who thinks i hate

asked—do you ever write

tree poems—i like trees

so i thought

i’ll write a beautiful green tree poem

peeked from my window

to check the image

noticed the school yard was covered

with asphalt

no green—no trees grow

in manhattan

then, well, i thought the sky

i’ll do a big blue sky poem

but all the clouds have winged

low since no-Dick was elected

so i thought again

and it occurred to me

maybe i shouldn’t write

at all

but clean my gun

and check my kerosene supply

perhaps these are not poetic

times

at all

Gotta give the Beautiful Black Men their flowers.

Beautiful Black Men is from Nikki Giovanni’s second self-published volume of poetry entitled “Black Judgement.” Which was also printed as a poster accompanied by art in 1969.

You can also listen to the spoken word rendition of the poem. On the album “Legacies: The Poetry of Nikki Giovanni.”

Beautiful Black Men 

(With compliments and apologies 

to all not mentioned by name)

i wanta say just gotta say something

bout those beautiful beautiful beautiful outasight

black men

with they afros

walking down the street

is the same ol danger

but a brand new pleasure

sitting on stoops, in bars, going to offices

running numbers, watching for their whores

preaching in churches, driving their hogs

walking their dogs, winking at me

in their fire red, lime green, burnt orange

royal blue tight tight pants that hug

what I like to hug

jerry butler, wilson pickett, the impressions

temptations, mighty mighty sly

don’t have to do anything but walk

on stage

and i scream and stamp and shout

see new breed men in breed alls

dashiki suits with shirts that match

the lining that complements the ties

that smile at the sandals

where dirty toes peek at me

and i scream and stamp and shout

for more beautiful beautiful beautiful

black men with outasight afros