That Nikki Giovanni poem has...

[TreasonousBastard]

probably been YouTubed to death by now, but emails with the text are going around, so here it is, and it is a keeper.



http://www.english.vt.edu/

We are Virginia Tech

We are sad today
We will be sad for quite a while
We are not moving on
We are embracing our mourning

We are Virginia Tech

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry
And we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again

We are Virginia Tech

We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing to deserve it

But neither does a child in Africa
Dying of AIDS

Neither do the Invisible Children
Walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army

Neither does the baby elephant watching his community
Be devastated for ivory
Neither does the Mexican child looking
For fresh water

Neither does the Iraqi teenager dodging bombs

Neither does the Appalachian infant killed
By a boulder
Dislodged
Because the land was destabilized

No one deserves a tragedy

We are Virginia Tech
The Hokie Nation embraces
Our own
And reaches out
With open heart and mind
To those who offer their hearts and hands

We are strong
And brave
And innocent
And unafraid

We are better than we think
And not yet quite what we want to be

We are alive to imagination
And open to possibility
We will continue
To invent the future

Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness

We are the Hokies

We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail

We are
Virginia Tech

Nikki Giovanni, delivered at the Convocation, April 17, 2007

[question everything]

1. Is she the lady wearing a baseball hat in reverse?

While being interviewed on one of the news programs?

Was really strange to see a faculty member, a mature woman covering her head like young men do.

[blogslut]

2. Her speech was a hell of a thing

Ms. Giovanni can wear any damned hat she wants as far as I'm concerned.

[blitzen]

3. It's a good, moving, and uplifting statement....but I still think that she is a

lousy, immensely overrated poet...Sorry, it's just my opinion--and one that hasn't changed since I first read her about 25 years ago.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Well, I'd be a bit more charitable and just...

say she's "variable."

Do we acclaim her occasional strokes of brilliance or hound her on her many mediocrities and senseless rants?

Or just accept both sides of her?

Today, I just say we watch her read this poem with a passion rarely seen.

[blitzen]

5. i will agree that it was an excellent oration n/t

[Hekate]

6. Thanks for posting the poem, TB. It was quite something to watch, wasn't it?

Nikki Giovanni isn't one of my favorite poets either, but her interviews are always fascinating -- and this performance was spot on in the moment of need.

Hekate

[xchrom]

7. her poetry is/was very sixties -- alternative culture centered.

i think she is so wonderful -- not the GREATEST poet -- but always timely and unique in a total way --- i.e. it's her life as well as her poetry that is the expression.

she gave me the shivers when she read her poem at teh convocation -- all the right notes at the right time.

and her dress for the convocation was part of that -- the suit and tie -- her voice -- she is a total package.