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61 " 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
62 " If i can't havewhat i want . . . thenmy job is to wantwhat i've gotand be satisfiedthat at least thereis something more to want "
― Nikki Giovanni
63 " it is not unusual to siftthrough ashesand find an unburnt picture "
64 " Black Poetry is not for Black People…it is for everybody "
65 " Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts. "
66 " and he said: you pretty full of yourself ain’t chu so she replied: show me someone not full of herself and i’ll show you a hungry person "
67 " Poets should be ashamedTo dieBefore they kissThe sun "
68 " you see, my whole life is tied up to unhappiness it's father cooking breakfast and me getting fat as a hog or having no food at all and father proving his incompetence again i wish i knew how it would feel to be freeit's having a job they won't let you work or no work at all castrating me (yes it happens to women too)it's a sex object if you're pretty and no love or love and no sex if you're fat get back fat black woman be a mother grandmother strong thing but not woman gameswoman romantic woman love needer man seeker dick eater sweat getter fuck needing love seeking womanit's a hole in your shoe and buying lil sis a dress and her saying you shouldn't when you know all too well that you shouldn'tbut smiles are only something we give to properly dressed social workers not each other only smiles of i know your game sister which isn't really a smilejoy is finding a pregnant roach and squashing it not finding someone to hold let go get off get back don't turn me on you black dog how dare you care about me you ain't go no good sense cause i ain't shit you must be lower than that to careit's a filthy house with yesterday's watermelon and monday's tears cause true ladies don't know how to cleanit's intellectual devastation of everybody to avoid emotional commitment "yeah honey i would've married him but he didn't have no degree"it's knock-kneed mini skirted wig wearing died blond mamma's scar born dead my scorn your whore rough heeeled broken nailed powdered face me whose whole life is tied up to unhappiness cause it's the only for real thing i know "
69 " I am so hip even my errors are correct. "
70 " I like beingThe moonTo your sun "
71 " If were a showerI could saturate your hairWork my way over your lipsAcross your shouldersAround your waistThrough your kneesTo the tips of your toesAnd back againWarm wet saltySweet "
― Nikki Giovanni , Love Poems
72 " ....but it cannot be a mistake to have cared...it cannot be an error to have tried....it cannot be incorrect to have loved. "
― Nikki Giovanni , Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection
73 " I'm into my Black Thing And it's filling all My empty spots "
― Nikki Giovanni ,
74 " There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your live those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect. "
75 " We cannot leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people "
76 " Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. "
― Nikki Giovanni , Racism 101
77 " BEFORE YOU JUMP OFF A BRIDGE OR HANG YOURSELF OR BE UNHAPPY PLEASE CONSIDER: LIVE FOR YOURSELF; THOSE WHO HATE YOU HAVE NO PURCHASE "
78 " The night loves the stars as they play about the Darkness...the day loves the light caressing the sun...We love...those who do...because we live in a world requiring light and Darkness...partnership and solitude...sameness and difference...the familiar and the unknown...We love because it's the only true adventure...from Love: Is a Human Condition "
79 " Grant me Love implies not desire butCommitmentCommitment accepts ChallengeChallenge embraces TheoryAnd you and I will get Reason: A way to explore past actions and future dreams "
80 " It is called education because it is learned. You do not have to have had an experience in order to sympathize or empathize with the subject. That is why books are written: so that we do not have to do the same things. We learn from experience, true; but we also learn from empathy.” A Theory of Patience "