Chasing Utopia Quotes

“Allowables

I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small spider
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn't
And she scared me
And I smashed her

I don't think
I'm allowed

To kill something

Because I am

Frightened.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“Maybe what will really work is we all need to have a fear tree in our backyard or a small fear plant growing on our apartment windowsill. When we are feeling uneasy we pluck a few leaves and find the right place to put them. Champagne would be the number one choice but spaghetti works, too. Have a little fear at least once a week and you will build up your resistance. Like a vaccination. Then, when wars and hatreds come along you'll be able to recognize that's just another expression of Fear. No thanks, I've had my quota.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“Poets should be ashamed
To die
Before they kiss
The sun”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“I like being
The moon
To your sun”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“BEFORE YOU JUMP OFF A BRIDGE OR HANG YOURSELF OR BE UNHAPPY PLEASE CONSIDER: LIVE FOR YOURSELF; THOSE WHO HATE YOU HAVE NO PURCHASE”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“Grant me Love implies
not desire but
Commitment
Commitment accepts Challenge
Challenge embraces Theory
And you and I will get Reason: A way to explore
past actions
and
future dreams”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“FOR SONIA SANCHEZ”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“Why would there be a destination when life itself is a journey? You go not to get there but to be there.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“I think you always write what you love. Whether it’s your grandmother or gourmet cooking or mountains and rivers. Sunsets kissing the tallest building or chipmunks scattering off to bed. I like the quiet. And I like the sound of the quiet. I’m a mountain girl. I listen and make lists of what I hear.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“We in the Black Arts movement, which wasn't really a movement but a group of people who had similar objectives...”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid

“We need to watch For the scared and the vulnerable One day it may be Us”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“I am from Appalachia. The Tennessee mountains with the early evenings and that great morning light made storytellers out of all of us.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic

“No matter what else is wrong in the world a book will take you away from it.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid – Remarkable Poetry and Stories on Race and Justice, Finding the Poetic in the Prosaic