Choices by Nikki Giovanni

Choices
Nikki Giovanni


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 
through always understanding 
parallel movement 
isn't lateral

When i can't express 
what i really feel 
i practice feeling 
what i can express 
and none of it is equal
I know 
but that's why mankind 
alone among the animals 
learns to cry 

Freedom by James Berry

     Freedom

        James Berry

Freedom is not

a helpless grasping

at a source of hurt

or an outpour of oneself

to fixed ends others started

Freedom is not

a hiding in the dust

of righteous indignation

or a merging with shadows

Freedom is not

 a becoming the model

of destructive echoes

or a walking in the hands of ghosts

Freedom is not

a reframing of oneself

in the walls of the old prison

or a becoming the tyrant's chain

Freedom is not

a letting go like trees grow

a native self unravelling

an adventure of a new

self because of oneself

People Equal by James Berry

       Here is week two of poetry month. I know you enjoyed the poem by Dr. Maya Angelou.  Today, this poem is by James Berry. James Berry is a British poet.  I have fell in love with his work. The poem I will share today is People Equal. 


People Equal
James Berry

Some people shoot up tall. 
Some hardly leave the ground at all. 
Yet-people equal. Equal. 

One voice is a sweet mango. 
Another is a nonsugar tomato. 
Yet-people equal. Equal. 

Some people rush to the front. 
Others hang back, feeling they can't. 
Yet-people equal. Equal. 

Hammer some people, you meet a wall. 
Blow hard on others, they fall. 
Yet-people equal. Equal. 

One person will aim at a star. 
For another, a hilltop is too far. 
Yet-people equal. Equal. 

Some people get on with their show. 
Others never get on the go. 
Yet-People equal. Equal. 

The Beginning of Poetry Month

Hello Audience!! I know it has been a while. Life has put me on some skates that has given me some surprises! It is April! I am excited because April is poetry month. So, here is a poem by my favorite poet to begin the first week of April. The poem is "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou. Enjoy!

Life Doesn't Frighten Me

Maya Angelou

Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all

Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn't frighten me at all

Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don't frighten me at all

Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn't frighten me at all.

I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won't cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild

Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Tough guys fight
All alone at night
Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don't frighten me at all.

That new classroom where
Boys all pull my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don't frighten me at all.

Don't show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I'm afraid at all
It's only in my dreams.

I've got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.

Life doesn't frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all.

Life doesn't frighten me at all.