Cotton candy on a rainy day: Poems

by Nikki Giovanni

Book by Giovanni, Nikki

Genres: Poetry, Race, Feminism, Fiction, Classics, Adult, African American Literature

93 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution". During the 1970s, she began writing children's literature, and co-founded a publishing company, NikTom Ltd, to provide an outlet for other African-American women writers. Over subsequent decades, her works discussed social issues, human relationships, and hip hop. Poems such as "Knoxville, Tennessee" and "Nikki-Rosa" have been frequently re-published in anthologies and other collections.
Giovanni received numerous awards and holds 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She was also given the key to over two dozen cities. Giovanni was honored with the NAACP Image Award seven times. One of her more unique honors was having a South America bat species, Micronycteris giovanniae, named after her in 2007.
Giovanni was proud of her Appalachian roots and worked to change the way the world views Appalachians and Affrilachians.
Giovanni taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State, and was a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech until September 1, 2022. After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, she delivered a chant-poem at a memorial for the shooting victims.

Reviews

[Tamar Alexanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"i could say i am black female
and bright
in a white male mediocre world
but that hardly explains why
i sit on the beaches of st croix
feeling so abandoned"

"blood perhaps should not
all ways be the answer
but perhaps it always is"

"my people have suffered
so much for so long
we are pitiful
in our misery"

"the dinosaurs became extinct
ripened fruit falls from the bough
and i grow tired of hoping"

"i haven't written a poem in so long
i may have forgotten how
unless writing a poem
is like riding a bike
or swimming upstream
or loving you
it may be a habit that once acquired
is never lost"

"i'm trying to say something about the human condition
maybe i should try again
...
i really want to say something about all of us
am i shouting i want you to hear me"

"sadness is not an unusual state
for the black woman
or writers"

[Cija Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm admittedly not an avid poetry reader, but I love Nikki Giovanni, so when I found this 1978 hard cover copy in a now defunct secondhand bookstore in Havre de Grace, Maryland, I had to pick it up. I'm still working through this book as I don't read poetry books in order, rather I pick them up and turn to a page and read what inspires me. In this case the book title spoke to me, evoking the fragility of our very existence, "cotton candy on a rainy day." Of the poems I've read in this book, they all seem to be a reflection on modern womanhood.

I found a signed 1978 hardback cover of this book in a now defunct secondhand store in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

[Bri Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Giovanni has never failed to impart earth-shattering wisdom in the simplest of words. It’s a gift.

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it no coincidence that she published this book the year I was born. I have come back to it many times in many a state since first reading this poetry collection some decades ago. Some poems always envelope me and others shift in terms of relevance to the moment. When I am in pain and not seeking to avoid it so much as move my way through it, I return to this book. And I am always more whole for doing so. I can't thank poets enough for what many of them do well - fly on the winds of words to the heart of what gives us life and what kills us.

[rada ☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this at the perfect time in my life. but at what cost

this book made me feel so many personal emotions that any review i write of it could not possibly be made public, but nikki was really FUCKING with me in this one. ow

i will probably think about this for a long time

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like some of my book choices this year have been kind of shallow, this one I mostly wanted to read for its title after I randomly found in my library's catalog. I mean, look at it? Luckily there's more to it than a pretty title and it turns out Nikki Giovanni is an icon of Black Poetry of the 60s and 70s. I still feel like I know shamefully little about Black Classic Literature that is not Baldwin or Morrison.

Giovanni takes a really interesting approach when talking about feminist, racial and societal issues, and a little about love and life, too. She writes about very everyday facts in an almost mundane manner and somehow still achieves a poetic rhythm. Really liked her upfront style, it felt rather unique to me. Her magic comes from how she puts these sentiments and images next to each other. And honestly, whenever there was a piece a bit more traditionally structured, maybe even with some rhyming, those fell a little flat to me. They miss the spark her freeform work has. But let the words speak for themselves. A few quotes that I quite liked and then a list of my favorite poems you can find in here:

"she never slept well
there wasn't a time
actually
when sleep refreshed her
perhaps it could have
but there were always dreams
or nightmares
and mostly her own acknowledgement
that she was meant to be tired"

"If you write a political poem
you're antisemitic
if you write a domestic poem
you're foolish
if you write a happy poem
you're unserious
if you write a love poem
you're maudlin
of course the only real poem
to write
is the go to hell writing establishment poem
but the readers never know who
you're talking about which brings us bacl
to point one"

"a dim reflection from the mirror on the wall
showed her the face and form of a coward
life she justified is not heroic
but survival"

"Flames don't flicker
forever
and moths are born to be burned"

Introspection/ Crutches/ A Poem Off Center/ The Winter Storm/ Their Fathers/ Life Cycles/ Adulthood II/ Choices/ A Poem for Ed and Archie/ POEM (for EMA)

[Kenneth Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m finally making an effort to read more poetry, and I decided to look into some “classics”, starting with this one.

As with any collection, not all the poems will click with all readers. In fact, not all of them will even make sense.

I found this to be particularly true for me in the first half of this collection, which I found somewhat dull. Maybe these concepts were more unique in 1980, but I’ve already read other poems with somewhat similar ideas.

However, the latter half improved greatly in my opinion, and I found it very readable and re-readable. Some of my favorites -

Their Fathers
Habits
Fascinations
Patience
Make Up

If you’re interested in poetry or classics, I think you should at least Google a few poems by Giovanni and see if you want more.

4 out of 5 stars

[Colettemariehayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"my poems get decimated/in the dishes the laundry/my sister is having another crisis/the bed has to be made/there is a blizzard on the way go to the grocery store/did you go to the cleaners/then a fuse blows/a fuse always has to blow/the women soon find themselves talking either to babies or about them/no matter how careful we are/we end up giving tips/on the latest new improved cleaner/and the lotion that will take the smell away"

"Emotional falls always are/ the worst/and there are no crutches to swing back on"

"In [Giovanni's] view one good line in a poem makes it valuable, and conversely, an imperfect line does not make it valueless"

[Srishti Jha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems have a personal touch, like Nikki has laid bare in clear terms, all she is. Even if some poems feel like having a chat with a friend, a few which are like love letters you can give to your own friends/lovers.

Some then, are about smallest things of living and being a woman, being human. Its a bag of christmas goodies from feel-good to nostalgia. I have saved so many of the poems.

Cant post here cause it could not be copied.

[Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of poems that like cotton candy you will repeatedly pull pieces from over and over again. You never truly finish this collections of work from Ms. Nikki Giovanni, because you will find yourself coming back to it's pages for comfort, for reflection, for life. Truly a beautiful read.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing words on all the pages.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely pick for my one poem a day!

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

was instantly drawn to this collection because of its title and ended up thoroughly enjoying all of the poems here.

nikki's work is so intricate and specific, yet applicable to any woman moving throughout the world. i can't believe i had never heard of her or her work. such a sweet surprise! this has me very excited to read more of her.

[Gabrielle Angelino · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always so strange to find your own heart's words echoed in the pages of a book. Especially one written long before you came into existence and much longer before your heart had time to shatter and reconstruct itself fifty times over. Yet here it is: my pain spilled all over these pages. Any time this happens to me, I am always surprised although I really shouldn't be. While our individual experiences differ, the ebbs and flows of life and the emotions they incite are universal; pain, betrayal, inadequacy, fear, hope, loss, regret. Love. Hate. The realization that your feelings are not unique or new or rare can seem a bit minimizing but I find it comforting. We are all in this world together. Life was active before us and will continue long after we die. Any feeling we experience has been felt millions of times over- often by people who have better words for those feelings than ourselves. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day is exactly what it claims to be: a beautiful, ethereal thing in the midst of gloom and grey; something to be savored and celebrated. I will read these poems in my head and in my heart for the rest of my life. I give this a thousand stars.

[Chris Roholt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really cool book for me to experience. I don't actually read a lot of poetry, so it was kind of different (in a good way). I loved how introspective the poetry was and how it talked about the lives of women. It was cool to read and reflect on certain parts of human conditions. I had to read the poetry more than once to understand it in some cases, but it was good that way because it made you want to read it more than once. I'd recommend this book to anyone who reads poetry or needs/wants to read more poetry. (Warning: not exactly basic poetry, need some experience)

[Mukund Gnanadesikan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Giovanni collection I read, and when I finished, I wondered why we were not instructed to read her work in American Lit classes at the high school and college levels. Giovanni's poetry is certainly more vibrant and impactful than a number of so-called classic writers to whom we are exposed (Edwin Arlington Robinson? William Carlos Williams?). The collection is personal, yet also contains elements of universality that connect it to the reader.

[Ollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Nikki Giovanni's poetry. She can slice and dice the world, turn on a dime, and become playful, raise the roof up to the sky, and dig down deep to what we turn away from. Brilliant, striking, illuminating, she has it all.

One of my favorite quotes from this collection:
"i write because
i have to"
~ "Boxes"

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nikki Giovani blew me away. I feel like I heard about her through rap lyrics before I discovered her poetry. Favorite from this collection is 'Habits'. I love her style and how woman centric, ethnic, and we'll written each of her poems are.

Edit: second favorite piece 'the moon shines down'- beautiful, I love it.

[Hope Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women aren't allowed to need so they develop rituals, since we all know working hands idle the devil. Women aren't supposed to be strong do they develop social smiles and secret drinking problems and female lovers whom they never touch except in dreams - CRUTCHES

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Poetry is hit or miss for me. When it's a hit, it's because the poet is able to cut to the heart of some experience or feeling I've had with a concise, powerful turn of phrase. And when it's a miss, it's because I can't relate to what the poet is describing, and unlike the fleshed-out language of a memoir or novel, I don't have enough to go on to learn something about someone else's experience.

And so I found this collection challenging because Giovanni is speaking to those who will resonate with the experiences and feelings she's had, which I don't share. She was writing in the 70s and expressed some of the disillusionment of the time, which might have seemed relatable to today except that it's expressed as a kind of vague melancholy without roots, whereas I think today we have the opposite problem of having too many different, concrete problems to point to. When her poetry moves away from the political and into the personal, I couldn't relate to her feeling of being abandoned by love, of choosing lovers who didn't care for her, or of chasing wild sexual urges. I recognize that I may be unusual in my rather staid love life, but nonetheless I felt that Giovanni expected me to relate to her experiences without giving me an entry point for understanding them.

There were a handful of poems I particularly liked: Age, Adulthood II, Patience, Make Up, and You Are There. Those to me dealt with the most universal themes, like aging and navigating human interaction. I can imagine how many of her other poems feel the same to people who can relate to her experiences. I just wasn't one of them.

[Cyndy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book of poetry, because Kiese Laymon mentioned it in his memoir Heavy. This quote is from the Introduction by Paula Giddings. ""When you graduate and get that plastic money buy an experience instead of a thing." Nikki, then looking every bit the elf she can be, says, "Anyway," laughing now, "if you buy something and you go broke they can take it from you. Buy yourself a trip or a hundred-dollar meal and it's yours forever.""

Probably my favorite selection is from the title poem:
"If loneliness were a grape
the wine would be vintage
...
But since it is life it is
Cotton Candy
on a rainy day"

Giovanni, Nikki. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (p. 16-Intro & 24). William Morrow. Paperback Edition.

[Maddy Doeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really good but it wasn't my favorite poetry book that I have read. The thing that I liked about it was that it was true feelings she had and it was all truth. What made me not like it as much was the fact that some of the poems were a little long and I sorta got tired of them fast. Although I gave it three stars for the fact that the sentences and pages were structured well together and the writing was really good, I just would have wanted more excitement and action in the poems.

[kayla goggin · Rating 4 out of 5]

poems for falling out of love with yourself, for confronting disappointment without self pity, for living in 2020 loneliness by way of the 1970s.

They have asked
the psychiatrists psychologists politicians and
social workers
What this decade will be
known for
There is no doubt it is
loneliness

If loneliness were a grape
the wine would be vintage
If it were a wood
the furniture would be mahogany
But since it is life it is
Cotton candy
on a rainy day
The sweet soft essence
of possibility
Never quite maturing

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

from Cotton Cany on a Rainy Day: "They have asked / the psychiatrists psychologists politicians and / social workers / What this decade will be / known for / There is no doubt it is / loneliness"

from Introspection: "she lived on the edge of an emotional abyss / or perhaps she lived in the well of a void / there were always things she wanted / like arms to hold her / eyes that understood / a friend to relax with / someone to touch / always someone to touch"

from Crutches: "emotional falls always are / the worst / and there are no crutches / to swing back on"

[a heron ♡︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Patience]

“There are sounds/which shatter/the staleness of lives/ transporting the shadows/into the dreams/

Raindrops falling/on leaves shatter/the dust of the city/as soap washed off/ bodies shatters/ the complacent dirt

She waited for him/to take away that quiet

She waited for his call/with the patience of a slave/woman quilting or a Jewish mother/simmering chicken broth

There would be no other/sound than his voice/to shatter the quiet/of her heart

She waited for him to come”

[Chellé · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m usually not a fan of poetry because from what I’ve read in the past it tends to revolve around hopeless love and I’m not that kind of girl. Nikki’s work in this book was refreshing, grounded, and realistic. Almost every poem resonated with me as I’m sliding into the age she was when this book came out. Although this was written in the seventies it’s still relevant today and I find that to be beautiful and magical.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was a meditative process and helped me reengage with the quotidian experiences that I had, for much of the pandemic, relegated to frustrating banalities. I recommend this book for anyone seeking tenderness (even if only for a brief moment).

[Deborah Simonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Direct, real, unapologetic, humble and smart. I’ll be back for more.

Favorites:

Crutches
Boxes
Their Fathers
Life Cycles
Poem (for EMA)
Winter
Turning (I need a better title)
Poem of Friendship
Bring and Nothingness (to quote a philosopher)

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m pretty sure my brain is still stuck on ‘lies that make real life livable.’ Excited to read more of Giovanni’s work. The forward was particularly helpful as someone who has not read any of Giovanni’s work before.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredible. one of the best collections I’ve read in a long time & I’m so mad at myself for not finding Giovanni sooner. I wish I could sing better praises in a mere review.