Bicycles
Collected poems that serve as a companion to Giovanni's 1997 Love Poems. That book--romantic, bold, and erotic--expressed notions of love in ways that were delightfully unexpected. In the years that followed, Giovanni experienced losses both public and private. A mother's passing, a sister's, too. A massacre on the campus at which she teaches. And just when it seemed life was spinning out of control, Giovanni rediscovered love--what she calls the antidote. Here romantic love--and all its manifestations, the physical touch, the emotional pull, the hungry heart--is distilled as never before by one of our most talented poets.--From publisher description.
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This is really silly, but maybe for the last month or so, after Ethan goes down for the night, we've been watching episodes of “Deal or No Deal” from like, 2006. It's a show of low stakes disguised as high stakes, and also did you know that Meghan Markle used to be a case model before she was the Duchess of Sussex?? Anyway, I mention this because halfway through Bicycles there's a poem called “Deal or No Deal,” and I had to read it to Matt even though he probably didn't care. :)
My class is not sureThat I should apply toDeal or No DealThey think I am luckyAfter allI am teachingThem
- excerpt
Nikki Giovanni is a local author and a professor at Virginia Tech, and I picked up this book because we just! got! a local bookstore! and it had a big display with lots of local authors, and I'd been meaning to check out more of Giovanni's work after I really enjoyed Chasing Utopia.
Unfortunately, while I still found plenty to like in Bicycles, I didn't love it anywhere near as much as Chasing Utopia. In that one, so many pieces resonated with me, and in this one, I'd laugh over a turn of phrase or think something was clever, but nothing really HIT me and stayed with me. This is a bummer, particularly because there are two lovely tribute pieces to Virginia Tech after the 2007 campus shooting - we just didn't happen to live here yet, and so don't have that same personal connection that someone that was here, then, would have.
