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Being and Nothingness by Nikki Giovanni

Being and Nothingness
Nikki Giovanni

i haven’t done anything
meaningful in so long
it’s almost meaningful
to do nothing

i suppose i could fall in love
or at least in line
since i’m so discontented
but that takes effort
and i don’t want to exert anything
neither my energy nor my emotions

i’ve always prided myself
on being a child of the sixties
and we are all finished
so that makes being
nothing

MARGINALIA

No classes in the morning. Had another batch of photos developed. Seem to be running out of film these days. Too many things to photograph. Sometimes it gives me this rush, the same kind that writing gives me. Watched a movie. Cried. Had dinner with friends. Went home. Still thinking of the weight that settled upon me as I walked along the lonely streets of Cubao, as I watched cars pass by, as I let the breeze play with my hair. I feel the days abandoning me.

ABOUT NIKKI GIOVANNI

Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, her notable books of poetry are Black Judgment (1968) and Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which were influenced by her participation in the Black Arts Movement and Black Power movement in the 1960s. Giovanni published numerous collections… (more)

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