Dylan+Arroyo

 //__**
 * "There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either." -** **Robert Graves**
 * Poetry to me** is a gateway to releasing thoughts, emotions, struggles, and everything else that life contains. It allows me to be free as free as one can be in a world of oppression. I am a spoken word artist therefore the poetry I write isn't written to be read silently to yourself, but to be preformed. The words aren't meant to be simply said, but rather spoken in a matter that they are heard. Most of all my writing comes out of thin air. Either I’ve read something, been through something, watched something, or simply said something and it set off a spark in my body that cause me to pull out my pad and write. Write until the moment passes until the idea is set on paper. Then I review what ever I have written and attempt to make it into something that can be performed. Something that I know will get the message what ever the message is out. That is what poetry is suppose to do. Poetry gets the message you want out in the simplest form, which is a poem. 

Ode to a Teenager **__// //Fearless // but yet **afraid ** //Strong// but yet **weak ** //Understanding// but yet **stubborn ** That’s what you are.  //Moving forward// but **carrying the past on your back as if it’s a stain that can’t be washed away. ** //Looking down// as your **head raises high. ** //Letting go// as **your feet stink into the ground below you.** That’s what your doing.

//Young // and brave <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">//Childish// and selfless <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">//Foolish// and wise That’s who you are

//<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Strength // to move <span style="color: rgb(23, 23, 222);">**forward** //<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hope // of a <span style="color: rgb(23, 23, 222);">**better day** //<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Faith // in the **<span style="color: rgb(23, 23, 222);">unknown ** That’s what you give me

So I’ll raise my head high and be proud to say I’m just a teenager.

__**<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Tonight// **__ Where did you go? I thought we promise each other to stay no matter what//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> **tonight.** // Please come back **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">//tonight.// **

I’ve been missing you like crazy. I’ve been haze eye staring at the bottom of this glass again. I’m not going to holdback **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//tonight// .**

And every time someone enters the room I look up to see if it is you. But all I have left is a Kodak**//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> tonight. //**

I never meant to hurt you love, I know we never meant to hurt each other. What a flashback **//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">tonight. //**

I guess it was a secret I shouldn’t of told you that night. I’ll just put it back into my backpack **//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">tonight. //**

And every one keeps asking me “ what happened with you two?” I feel like I’m under attack <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**//tonight.//**

I know you’re no where near, I know you won’t be back. But I can smell lilacs//**<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> tonight. **//

So I will pack away our memories and hope that they can fade to black <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**//tonight.//** Dylan stands here looking strong but feeling weak Because there’s not going back <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//**tonight.**//

<span style="color: rgb(255, 43, 0);">__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**If I was A Poet** __ My hands got tired of writing my words in //**ink**//- B My knowledge into a passionate //**drink**//-B <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**If I was a poet** I’ll tell you //**stories**//-C Of love, lost, life, heartache, beauty, and //**youth**//.-D <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**If I was a poet** I’ll never want //**glories**//-C Because the only glory there’s **//truth//**-D <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**If I was a poet** I’ll speak with //**fire**//-E And hold back nothing from my **//listeners//**-F And have dreams of a different world like //**dreamers**// F Nothing less then a pleasant poetic **me**.-G
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">If I was a poet **I’ll write //**till**// –A
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">If I was a poet **I’ll //**instill**// -A
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">If I was a poet **I’ll write with //**desire**//-E
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">If I was a poet ** then I’ll //**be**//-G



Oscar Wilde once said, “He [sic] lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realise.” As with many poets Nikki Giovanni is one of the many poets that live the poetry they cannot write, though she attempts to tell what she can within her poems. She was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and grew up in Lincoln Heights, many of her pieces have a trace of where she was born and how she was brought up. She cannot be categorize as just one specific type of poet. Her poetry goes from inspiring black people to be all that they can be to speaking of love and love lost. Her style also differs. Though no matter what style she uses in her poetry or what it is about, Giovanni’s poetry always contains passion.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//**__Poems by Nikki Giovanni__**//
=<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> = <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">

__//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Nikki Rosa ** //__
Childhood rememberances are always a drag if you're Black you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet and if you become famous or something

They never talk about how happy you were to have your mother all to yourself and how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those

Big tubs that folk in chicago barbeque in and somehow when you talk about home it never gets across how much you understood their feelings as the whole family attended meetings

About Hollydale and even though you remember your biographers never understand your father's pain as he sells his stock and another dream goes

And though your're poor it isn't poverty that concerns you and though they fought a lot it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference but only that

Everybody is together and you and your sister have happy birthdays and very good Christmasses and I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me because they never understand

Black love is Black wealth and they'll probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that all the while I was quite happ__**y**__

__**<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Analyzing //Nikki Rosa// **__
In Giovanni’s poem “ Nikki Rosa” she does not bitterly about her childhood, but rather portrays her happiness.

“and if you become famous or something They never talk about how happy you were to have your mother”

In this line she speaks about when ever someone speaks about her past they never speak of happiness but rather speak about the poverty in which she grew up in. Though in this line

“And though your're poor it isn't poverty that concerns you and though they fought a lot it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference but only that

Everybody is together and you and your sister have happy birthdays and very good Christmasses”

Giovanni states that poverty was never important because she was happy. She uses the symbolism of wealth as being love, “ Black love is black wealth”, and in the end that it did not matter about the hardships she has been through but rather that she was happy and rich because she was loved.

__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**You Came, Too** __ I came to the crowd seeking friends I came to the crowd seeking love I came to the crowd for understanding

I found you

I came to the crowd to weep I came to the crowd to laugh

You dried my tears You shared my happiness

I went from the crowd seeking you I went from the crowd seeking me I went from the crowd forever always a drag if you're Black __//**You came, too**//

Within the poem “You came too” Giovanni speaks of love and finding wheat your looking for. In this verse
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Analyzing //You came too// **__

“I came to the crowd seeking friends I came to the crowd seeking love I came to the crowd for understanding

I found you”

She speaks of how she came to a crowd seeking friends, love , and understanding and she found them. Then she speaks of how she left the crowd seeking them and seeking herself and seeking forever and how the person followed her within this verse. “ I came to the crowd seeking friends I came to the crowd seeking love I came to the crowd for understanding

I found you”

The style of this poem is very short and spread apart when ever she speaks about the other person she starts a new verse which makes reading the poem more profound.

__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**CHOICES** __ if i can't do what i want to do then my job is to not do what i don't want to do

it's not the same thing but it's the best i can do

if i can't have what i want. . . then my job is to want what i've got and be satisfied that at least there is something more to want

since i can't go where i need to go. . . then i must. . . go where the signs point

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**__Analyzing__** //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**__Choices__** Choices is basically just that. “if i can't do what i want to do then my job is to not do what i don't want to do

it's not the same thing but it's the best i can do”

These verse talk about giving up what you want to do and changing it to do what you must do, because if it is the best you can do. The reader may perceive this as Giovanni just wants to do the best that she can do even though it is not what she wants to do.

“then my job is to want what i've got and be satisfied that at least there is something more to want”

Many may get the idea that Giovanni is saying to be humble and to take what is given to you in life. She does not complain but rather just changes her direction and tries to be happy with it.

“and none of it is equal i know but that's why mankind alone among the animals learns to cry”

Giovanni knows that the choices you make do not equal to what you want, but she speaks about that’s how humans learn to cry.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">