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Bicycles: Love Poems
In a career that has earned her accolades, honorary degrees, and awards from both fellow poets and everyday poetry lovers, Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, inform and inspire. Sometimes controversial, sometimes ethereal, but always beautiful, her poems move readers of all hues and generations.
With "Bicycles,"
...moreHardcover, 109 pages
Published
January 13th 2009
by William Morrow & Company
(first published January 1st 2009)
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Poignant and powerful, Nikki Giovanni’s Bicycles: Love Poems is easily and incomparably a masterpiece of raw, unadulterated truth. Following years of loss—her mother, sister and the Virginia Tech massacre—Giovanni began writing and collecting poems about how she mourned and, ultimately, survived: the rediscovery of love.
Giovanni is not a stranger to love poems; her 1997 publication Love Poems received public and critical acclaim with its unself-conscious, bold and erotic expressions y...more
Giovanni is not a stranger to love poems; her 1997 publication Love Poems received public and critical acclaim with its unself-conscious, bold and erotic expressions y...more
Nikki Giovanni celebrates her 65 years with 65 poems following in the tradition of her well-received earlier release, Love Poems, and expands on the nuances, notions, and manifestations of love. She taps into the senses: the instant physiological reactions of seeing a lover or loved one regardless of whether they are a revered figure (in an ode to "Free Huey") or familial as reflected in "Christmas Laughter." Tastes are echoed in the references of food seasoned just right and...more
I told Tony that I have been wanting more poetry in my life. Then Ocean says come over to the backyard and read. She read an homage to MJ and I read Derrick Brown which I described in a letter to Emily as old hat. So I picked this up. I browsed the poetry room. I browsed the shelves on a Saturday. I think I wrote one of Nikki Giovanni's love poems down somewhere some years ago. I think it was called "I take Mastercard."
I liked most of these poems. The ones that moved...more
I liked most of these poems. The ones that moved...more
I like how Nikki Giovanni compares loves to bicycles ... both need trust and balance. These poems are full of longings and ecstasy. If you’ve ever experienced the loneliness of lost love, the connection of a soul mate, or second guessed your feelings, you will find something to relate to in Giovanni’s poetry. If you think about how unsteady you feel when first learning to ride a bike … love is the same way … a fall can hurt. Remember though after persistence, and learning to balance, bicycl...more
The latest collection of poems by Giovanni, who is currently a professor at Virginia Tech. The first and last entries describe the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, in which a deranged student shot 32 people to death on campus before taking his own life. Most of the other poems are tender statements of love, with the bicycle used as a metaphor, as "love requires trust and balance". A representative example is If Only (which I'll post in its entirety here, as it is also available on the b...more
"We are Virginia Tech" helped me to heal from that incident (I was in my first year of teaching when the shooting happened)I remember Giovanni's poem coming to me at just the right moment, and I actually shared it with the group of 9th graders I was student-teaching. Several of us were in tears, and the poem continues to touch me in new ways everytime I revisit it. Most recently, the lines "We are better than we think, and not yet what we want to be," tugged at my soul.
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Even if you don't like poetry, Giovanni's variations on style and content are obvious. There is something for almost everyone here. Her poetry is a fresh and crisp, both funny and sad. She calls forth clever,crystallizing images of mood and setting. The spareness of the words in imagery and her own sharing of who she is uniquely as a black woman and a person make her one of the best. She is approachable to everyday poetry readers as well as critically aclaimed among her professional colleague...more
Appropriately, I bought this book on Valentine's Day, at the Book Mark in Mount Pleasant, killing time after our dinner at China Garden before it was time to pick up Jefferson from free child care at New Life church. Not only is it Nikki, but the cover called to me as a clear echo of her earlier collection, Love Poems, out in '97, which I discovered in college and was the true dawning of my love for her.
This book of poems is very much the same. The poet is a little older, a little wi...more
This book of poems is very much the same. The poet is a little older, a little wi...more
I am the cricket
In the grass
I talk by rubbing
My wings against
My legs
I am calling calling calling
For a friend
I am the spider
Capturing shadows
Weaving this web
To let the light
Dance
I am the harvest moon
That allows you
To read
A midnight
Poem
I am the autumn wind
Whooshing cold
Bringing you greetings
From blankets and fireplaces
I am that tiny ball of cotton
From your grandmother...more
In the grass
I talk by rubbing
My wings against
My legs
I am calling calling calling
For a friend
I am the spider
Capturing shadows
Weaving this web
To let the light
Dance
I am the harvest moon
That allows you
To read
A midnight
Poem
I am the autumn wind
Whooshing cold
Bringing you greetings
From blankets and fireplaces
I am that tiny ball of cotton
From your grandmother...more
As if she's taking us on a Sunday ride down the strand, Giovanni cruises through her recent memory... jazz plays and there is the smell of toast, the taste of bold red wines, an ever hopeful heart despite a still-hovering ache. The title poem says it all. Read it first and then, enjoy the ride.
My favorite poems: " My Muse," "I Clean," "Love (and the meaning of love)," "Trash Pans," and "Good Books."
My favorite poems: " My Muse," "I Clean," "Love (and the meaning of love)," "Trash Pans," and "Good Books."
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Terrific poetry examples-
From I want a shoe
"It shouldn't cost too much
Because I am
After all
Just a poet
thinking way outside
the box"
From-Letting the air out
"This is not
a country son
I am not
a Dixie chick
...I don't have
a pickup truck
I don't do
roadkill
My hair isn't 'big'
There's no breast implants
...We're not going anywhere
Thank God
for Monday Night
Fo...more
From I want a shoe
"It shouldn't cost too much
Because I am
After all
Just a poet
thinking way outside
the box"
From-Letting the air out
"This is not
a country son
I am not
a Dixie chick
...I don't have
a pickup truck
I don't do
roadkill
My hair isn't 'big'
There's no breast implants
...We're not going anywhere
Thank God
for Monday Night
Fo...more
I checked out this book of poems mainly because of the title "Bicycles", because I love biking. A good part of the poetry found here are inspired by love or loss of love. My favorite poem was "I Know the Song", about being a motherless child. Giovanni's poetry reminds me of an impressionistic painting - leaving the reader (viewer) to fill in the fine details from their own experiences.
Great poet who expresses deep emotions with the simplest rhymes and the most perfect word choices.
I saw her interviewed on PBS recently and was so impressed by her, that I ran out to get a book of her work the next day.
It's a pleasure to read her work and I'm glad that I made the time to take in this book and the author's unique observations.
I saw her interviewed on PBS recently and was so impressed by her, that I ran out to get a book of her work the next day.
It's a pleasure to read her work and I'm glad that I made the time to take in this book and the author's unique observations.
I love Giovanni. I have talked to my students about a little of her background and they seem interested. Of course some of her poems are not right for my middle school students and should wait until they are more mature, but I have given them a taste of wonderful poetry and hopefully inspired them to continue seeking out great poets and their work.
Simple words,concepts like love, romance, friendship, family, faith, pride, trust combined with familiar images, favorite things like that red bicycle on the cover, serve up comfort food for the soul. Spoon fulls of love: stirring, honest and sympathetic. Pure joy! Get your own copy and one for a friend to take the ride.
Giovanni's poems are not clever enough to pull of their dumbed-down simplicity. These are the sort of poems I would expect to find in an anthology self-published by a loving grandmother, and given to her grandchildren. While these would be endearing if coming from my own grandmother, they are silly coming from someone else's.
My New Car
I drive
like I have a new car
I don't want anyone
to bump it
or scratch it
or actually get too close
to it
Stay in your own lane
I want to shout
But I stay satisfyingly cool
I fit in
I relax
I don't want you to think
I think
I have any reason
To be jealous
I drive
like I have a new car
I don't want anyone
to bump it
or scratch it
or actually get too close
to it
Stay in your own lane
I want to shout
But I stay satisfyingly cool
I fit in
I relax
I don't want you to think
I think
I have any reason
To be jealous
The Artist (p. 102)
And so it comes
To this
The sun beating
Down
The people indifferently passing
And we... out
Of breath
In a pool of salty
Sweat
Laughing Happy
In each other's
Trust
That once again
We gentled the stone
All the way down
And will now
Push it back up...
We are Sisyphus
And so it comes
To this
The sun beating
Down
The people indifferently passing
And we... out
Of breath
In a pool of salty
Sweat
Laughing Happy
In each other's
Trust
That once again
We gentled the stone
All the way down
And will now
Push it back up...
We are Sisyphus
I found a poetry book about bicycles. And love. And I bought it. And liked much of it, loved a little of it. I read it over the past week, much after nearly killing myself mountain biking, and then drinking, and then recovering. And it was good. The End. (Of Love, not Bicycles.)
I came by Nikki Giovanni via the 2011 "Everybody Reads Selection" of the Multnomah County Library. The author of the selection, Wes Moore, has a sister named after Nikki Giovanni and I figured that was good enough reason to check her out. I found a lot of these poems a bit too "early relationship happy/sappy" for me and am interested in reading other poems by this author that are not specifically about love. My favorite poem was "Christmas Laughter" (which can be fo...more
Execrable. The book begins strongly with one, truly fine poem, "Blacksburg Under Siege: 21 August 2006," in response to the Virginia Tech massacre then instantly takes a death dive into gooey, addle-pated "love poems" so sappy they'd make a lovesick 6th grader gag. A stunning disappointment.
Bill Moyers had Ms Giovanni on a couple of weeks ago and she read some poems--I just loved them. I remembered her reading of We Are Virginia Tech (16 April 2007)after that tragedy. She is an accessable wonderful poet and a very cool woman!
I saw her discuss her new book of poetry "Bicycles: Love Poems" and read three of her poems on Bill Moyer's Journal. I would love to read or perhaps hear them all. Maybe an audio version will become available .
Nikki Giovanni writes with little regard for structure and semantics. She writes how she feels and I completely respect that. Most poets are about rhythm, structure and they miss the reader. She just says screw all that, this is what I have to say.
In this wonderful collection of love poems author and poet, Nikki Giovanni takes the thesis of her craft to a higher level. I highly recommend Bicycles to devoted poetry lovers, as well as to beginners.
A beautiful inscription of love. I love love! Nikki Giovanni knows how to write about love in the most intriguing ways possible.
Bicycles... because love requires trust and balance. Love it. Not all the poems knocked me over, but that's OK. NG is wonderful.
A sweet, sad, reverent and joyus account of love. The romantic side as well as familial affection. I liked it.
Oh, to be so gifted in describing everyday life in such beautiful, yet simple, language!
..nikki g. never loses her touch! Still the same passion as Cottony Candy on a Rainy Day
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Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is a Grammy-nominated American poet, activist and author.
She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.
More about Nikki Giovanni...
She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.
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