In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, Nikki Giovanni has earned the reputation as one of America's most celebrated and contoversial writers. Now, she presents a stunning collection of love poems that includes more than twenty new works. From the revolutionary "Seduction" to the tender new poem, "Just a Simple Declaration of Love," from the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet" to the elegiac "All Eyez on U," written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered. Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems expresses notions of love in ways that are delightfully unexpected. Articulating in sensuous verse what we know only instinctively, Nikki Giovanni once again confirms her place as one of our nations's most distinguished poets and powerful truth-tellers. In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, starting with her explosive early years in the Black Rights Movement, Nikki Giovanni has earned a reputation as one of America's most celebrated and controversial writers. Her mind-speaking work has made her a universal favorite and a number-one best-seller.The love poems-the revolutionary "Seduction," the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet," and the tender "My House" to name just a few-are among the most beloved of all Nikki Giovanni's works. Now, Love Poems brings together these and other favorites with over twenty new poems. Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems will once again confirm Nikki Giovanni's place among the country's most renowned poets and truth tellers.

Nikki Giovanni is the author of more than fourteen volumes of poetry. A professor of English at Virginia Tech, Ms. Giovanni reads her work all over the country.

Love Poems

What It Is

if it's a trail we can hike it
if it has two wheels we can bike it

if it's an allergy we can sneeze it
if it's a pimple we can squeeze it

if it's dew it "covers Dixie"
if it's Tinker Bell it's a pixie

if it's a breeze it can blow us
if it's the sun it can know us

if it's a song we can sing it
if it flies we can wing it

if it's soda pop then it's drinkable
it might be X-Rated but that's unthinkable

if it's a boat we can sail it
if it's a letter we can mail it

if it's a star we can let it shine
if it's the moon it can make you mine

if it's grass we can rake it
if it's free why not take it

if it's a tide it can ebb
if it's a spider it can web

if it's chocolate we can dip it
if it's a golf ball we can chip it

if it's gum we can chew it
I hope it's love so we can do it

Love Poems. Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
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