*poetry with analysis by lindsey hume*

Nikki-Rosa
By Nikki Giovanni

childhood remembrances are always a drag
if you’re Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those
big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never gets across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father’s pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
and though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that
concerns you
and though they fight a lot
it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmases
and I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me
because they never understand that Black love is Black wealth and they’ll
probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy.

Analyzing Nikki-Rosa
 By Lindsey Hume

        In the poem, “Nikki-Rosa”, Nikki Giovanni portrays how happy she actually was as a child, by symbolically depicting “Black love” as wealth. In this poem, Giovanni describes how many people who write about her look past all of the joy she found in everything, solely concentrating on her poverty, yet seeming to forget the fact that Giovanni was rich, because she was surrounded by love. Giovanni shows that many people are not able to understand the richness of the love that she was surrounded by as a child. This form of wealth simply allowed all of her poverty to fade into the background. “And I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me/ because they never understand Black Love is Black wealth, and they’ll/ probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that/ all the while I was quite happy.” In this quote the author explains how love is truly wealth, and that it is not the money that matters, yet it is the love that you are given that truthfully counts. Giovanni illustrates how she was quite happy as a child, regardless of the adversity that many white people, who do not understand that love is wealth, might find in her early life.  Giovanni used symbolism in her poem to inform others that money does not necessarily buy happiness, and just because one might seem to have a hard childhood, they might truly be very happy. As Nikki Giovanni illustrates the comparison between love and wealth, her poem reflects the true meaning behind happiness, which is not always easy to see.

Poem for Black Boys
(With special love to James)
By Nikki Giovanni

Where are your heroes, my little Black ones
You are the Indian you so disdainfully shoot
Not the big bad sheriff on his faggoty white horse

You should play run-away-slave
Or Mau Mau
These are more in line with your history

Ask your mothers for a Rap Brown gun
Santa just may comply if you wish hard enough
Ask for CULLURD instead of Monopoly
DO NOT SIT IN DO NOT FOLLOW KING
GO DIRECTLY TO STREETS
This is a game you can win

As you sit there with your all understanding eyes
You know the truth of what I’m saying
Play Back-to-Black
Grow a natural and practice vandalism
These are useful games (some say a skill is even
Learned)

There is a new game I must tell you of
It’s called Catch the Leader Lying
(and knowing your sense of absurd
you will enjoy this)

Also a company called Revolution has just issued
A special kit for little boys
Called Burn Baby
I’m told it has full instructions on how to siphon gas
And fill a bottle

Then our old friend Hide and Seek becomes valid
Because we have much to seek and ourselves to hide
From a lecherous dog

 And this poem I give is worth much more
Than any nickel bag
Or ten-cent toy
And you will understand all too soon
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes
You must invent your own games and teach us old
Ones how to play.

Analyzing Poem for Black Boys
By Lindsey Hume

         In “Poem for Black Boys”, Nikki Giovanni presents black boys as stereotypical figures, indirectly illustrating her anger from an African-American’s perspective. This poem portrays the struggle of an African-American to be accepted into society and treated equally. By talking to “her little black ones”, Giovanni prepares the young boys for their future, telling them to be rebellious and infringe upon the laws, because this is what everyone expects from them. “Ask for CULLURD instead of Monopoly/ DO NOT SIT IN DO NOT FOLLOW KING/GO DIRECTLY TO STREETS/ this is a game you can win.” In these lines, Giovanni is illustrating how society automatically categorizes the African-American race to be uneducated, treating these people to be worthless. Giovanni says society assumes that they are just a bunch of troublemakers, undeserving of participating in normal daily activities. However in this line, Giovanni tells the boys that they can play another game other than Monopoly, one that they already know very well how to play. In this poem the author illustrates how society categorizes African-American boys as mischievous troublemakers, whom are only capable of doing awful things. Yet, the poet suggests to the boys to be strong, and have faith, for they will have to invent their own games to play, meaning they will need to find how to live happily despite what society thinks of them. She asks the boys that they will share their new way to live life happily with the older people, for they’ve never learned how to do so. Therefore in this poem, we find the struggle for blacks to be accepted into civilization.