30 Habits of Highly Effective Authors #28: Nikki Giovanni on Personifying Poems

Nikki Giovanni has several poems that use the poem itself, or the act of writing, as a metaphor. When you read these poems together, the poem takes on a persona: A friend or beloved whose feelings for the speaker are unreliable. Giovanni speaks to the complicated relationship poets have with their words.

Habits

by Nikki Giovanni

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

but you say i'm foolish
of course you love me
but being loved of course
is not the same as being loved because
or being loved despite
or being loved

if you love me why
do i feel so lonely 

Read the rest of the poem here.

My favorite lines are: "it may be a habit that once acquired/ is never lost." It's a message I share with students, beginning writers, and stuck writers. Once you're bitten by the writing bug, it will always be there for you.

Here is Nikki Giovanni performing, "Talk to Me Poem." It was featured on an early episode of Def Poetry Jam.

It's Poetry Friday!

We spent New Year's Eve at St. Petersburg's First Night family celebration. NinjaGirl and I danced by the DJ stage, DJRobMan kicked some kid's butt at the Guitar Hero tent (making friends in the process -- they went off to try the moon-bounce boxing ring). The kids took their grandparents through a labrynth marked by kid-decorated paper bag lanterns. It was great! One of our favorite things was the heart-pumping Mt. Zion Progressive Drumline. The drummers reminded me of Nikki Giovanni's metaphor poem, "The Drum": The drum daddy says the world is a drum tight and hard and i told him Read what she told "daddy" (it's good starting the year right advice) here. Join in the first Poetry Friday of 2009 at A Year of Reading.