Who makes for good friends?

 

“Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.” –  Nikki Giovanni

 

Born in Knoxville, Tenn., in June of 1943, Giovanni was a poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator.   One of the world’s best-known African American poets, her work covered topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature.  Giovanni, who died in 2024, won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and NAACP Image Award.   

 

Her poetry has ranged from the somber, such as the chant-poem she delivered at the memorial for the Virginia Tech shooting victims, to thoughtful, to whimsical.  For Saturday’s Poem here is Giovanni’s  

I wrote a good omelet

I wrote a good omelet...and ate
a hot poem... after loving you
Buttoned my car...and drove my
coat home...in the rain...
after loving you
I goed on red...and stopped on
green...floating somewhere in between...
being here and being there...
after loving you
I rolled my bed...turned down
my hair...slightly
confused but...I don't care...
Laid out my teeth...and gargled my
gown...then I stood
...and laid me down...
To sleep...
after loving you.