“Stardate Number 18628.190”
This poem was originally published as “Light the Candles” in Essence magazine’s twenty-fifth anniversary issue, May 1995.
Stanza 3: “Precious Lord…take my hand”: Classic gospel song written in 1938 by Thomas A. Dorsey.
Stanza 3: “Amazing Grace”: Well-known song written by a former slave ship captain.
Stanza 3: “Go down, Moses”: Well-known slave spiritual.
Stanza 3: “Marion Anderson”: Marian Anderson (1900–1993), a Philadelphia-born singer, the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1939 she drew national attention when the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her request to sing in Constitution Hall—because she was Black. Eleanor Roosevelt, then wife of the U.S. president, resigned from the DAR in protest. Subsequently Marian Anderson sang in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, to an audience of 75,000 people.
Stanza 3: “Leontyne”: Leontyne Price (1927–) is an internationally recognized diva whose opera career blossomed in the 1950s.
Stanza 3: “Battle”: Kathleen Battle (1948–) is a soprano who has appeared at most of the world’s major opera houses.
Stanza 3: “Bessie”: Bessie Smith (1894–37), “Empress of the Blues.”
Stanza 3: “Dinah Washington”: Dinah Washington (1924–63), one of the great blues singers.
Stanza 3: “Etta James saying At Last”: Etta James (1938–) is a rhythm and blues singer whose career peaked in the 1950s and 1960s; one of her early albums is entitled At Last.
Stanza 4: “This is a bus seat”: An allusion to Rosa Parks (1913–). See note to “Harvest,”.
Stanza 4: “telling young Alex”: An allusion to Alex Haley (1921–92), who first heard of his African ancestors through storytelling sessions on long summer nights in Tennessee.
Stanza 6: “CC Riders”: “C. C. Rider” is the title of an old folk song that was transformed into a blues song.
Stanza 7: “Peter Salem and Peter Poor”: Giovanni means Peter Salem (1750?–1816) and Salem Poor (dates uncertain), both African American heroes in the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill. Peter Salem is credited with killing Major John Pit-cairn. Salem Poor is credited with killing Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie; he was cited for heroism by some fourteen officers.
Stanza 7: “the 54th Regiment from Massachusetts”: This all-Black Civil War regiment demonstrated unsurpassed courage in its unsuccessful assault on Confederate forces at Fort Wagner in 1863. The regiment is the subject of the 1989 film Glory.
Stanza 7: “Emmett Till”: Emmett Louis Till (1941–55). See note to “Lorraine Hansberry,”.
Stanza 7: “Medgar Evers”: Medgar Wiley Evers (1925–63), Civil Rights activist and Mississippi field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was murdered in the doorway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 12, 1963.
Stanza 7: “Malcolm X”: Malcolm X, later Al Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz (1925–65), was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
Stanza 7: “Martin Luther King, Jr.”: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
“BROTHER BROTHER BROTHER (the Isley Brothers of Lincoln Heights)”
The Isley Brothers, whose father was a professional singer and mother was a pianist, began singing together in the 1950s. Initially there were four brothers: O’Kelly (1937–86), Rudolph (1939–), Ronald (1941–), and Vernon (?–1954), but the core of the group consisted of three after Vernon was killed in an automobile accident. In the mid-1960s, they were joined by their younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and their cousin Chris Jasper.
Stanza 2: “into the Valley”: Suburban area north of Cincinnati.
Stanza 4: “progress is the most important product”: Advertising slogan used by General Electric.
Stanza 7: “perfecting SHOUT”: “Shout,” a soul music single reflecting gospel roots, was released in 1959 and brought national attention to the group.
Stanza 8: “Joey Dee”: Joey Dee and the Starlighters were a white rock and roll group that had two huge hits, “Peppermint Twist” and “Shout—Part 1.”
Index of Titles
Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.
Adulthood, 62
Adulthood II, 260
Africa, 215
Africa I, 176
Africa II, 177
Age, 250
Alabama Poem, 120
All I Gotta Do, 111
Alone, 96
Always There Are the Children, 223
And Another Thing, 189
And Sometimes I Sit, 138
Atrocities, 182
Autumn Poems, 99
Balances, 81
Beautiful Black Men, 70
Because, 253
Beep Beep Poem, The, 272
Being and Nothingness, 292
Black Judgements, 88
Black Power, 34
Black Separatism, 15
Boxes, 240
Brother Brother Brother, 361
But Since You Finally Asked, 357
Butterfly, The, 155
Cancers, 339
Categories, 165
Certain Peace, A, 158
Charles White, 316
Charting the Night Winds, 299
Choices, 269
Communication, 206
Concerning One Responsible Negro with Too Much Power, 47
Conversation, 149
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, 227
Crutches, 238
Cultural Awareness, 79
Cyclops in the Ocean, The, 326
Dance Committee, The, 39
December of My Springs, The, 202
Detroit Conference of Unity and Art, 3
Dreams, 67
Drum, The, 318
Each Sunday, 200
Eagles, 320
Ego Tripping, 125
Ever Want To Crawl, 140
Fascinations, 264
Fishy Poem, A, 147
Flying Underground, 321
For A Lady of Pleasure Now Retired, 116
For An Intellectual Audience, 33
For a Poet I Know, 82
Forced Retirement, 232
For Gwendolyn Brooks, 99
For Harold Logan, 93
For Saundra, 80
For Teresa, 84
For Tommy, 91
For Two Jameses (Ballantine and Snow) In iron cells, 97
From a Logical Point of View, 64
Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., The, 51
Game Of Game, The, 113
Genie in the Jar, The, 110
Great Pax Whitie, The, 54
Gus, 266
Habits, 262
Hampton, Virginia, 209
Hands: For Mother’s Day, 304
Harvest, 327
Her Cruising Car, 322
Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails, A, 16
Housecleaning, 102
How Do You Write A Poem?, 136
I Am She, 342
I Laughed When I Wrote It, 185
I’m Not Lonely, 30
Intellectualism, 57
Introspection, 230
I Remember, 156
I Want To Sing, 139
I Wrote a Good Omelet, 337
Journey, A, 333
Just a New York Poem, 161
Kidnap Poem, 109
Knoxville, Tennessee, 59
Laws of Motion, The, 211
Legacies, 143
Letter to a Bourgeois Friend Whom Once I Loved, 27
Life Cycles, 258
Life I Led, The, 203
Linkage, 313
Lion in Daniel’s Den, The, 115
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br /> Litany for Peppe, A, 52
Lorraine Hansberry: An Emotional View, 301
Love: Is a Human Condition, 331
Love Poem, 31
Love Thoughts, 345
Luxury, 207
Make Up, 282
Master Charge: Blues, 114
Mirrors, 310
Mixed Media, 160
Moon Shines Down, The, 293
Mothers, 144
Mother’s Habits, 204
My House, 192
My Poem, 86
My Tower, 174
New Yorkers, The, 235
Night, 220
Nikki-Rosa, 53
No Reservations, 94
Nothing Makes Sense, 183
Of Liberation, 41
Once a Lady Told Me, 199
On Hearing “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,” 4
Only Song I’m Singing, The, 154
On Seeing Black Journal and Watching Nine Negro Leaders “Give Aid and Comfort to the Enemy” to Quote Richard Nixon, 187
Oppression, 128
Our Detroit Conference, 8
Patience, 281
Personae Poem, 11
Photography, 271
Poem, 208
Poem, 242
Poem (For Anna Hedgeman and Alfreda Duster), 181
Poem (For BMC No. 1), 7
Poem (For BMC No. 2), 10
Poem (For BMC No. 3), 14
Poem (For Dudley Randall), 9
Poem (For EMA), 278
Poem (For Nina), 175
Poem (No Name No. 1), 13
Poem (No Name No. 2), 18
Poem (No Name No. 3), 23
Poem (For PCH), 12
Poem (For TW), 6
Poem/Because It Came As A Surprise To Me, A, 127
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like, 135
Poem for Aretha, 103
Poem for Black Boys, 45
Poem for Carol, A, 146
Poem for Ed and Archie, A, 274
Poem For Flora, 131
Poem for langston hughes, A, 356
Poem for Lloyd, 101
Poem For My Nephew, 133
Poem for Stacia, 152
Poem For Unwed Mothers, 122
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis, 351
Poem Off Center, A, 245
Poem of Friendship, A, 291
Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, A, 319
Poetry, 221
Poetry is a Tressel, 210
Rain, 100
Records, 60
Reflections/On a Golden Anniversary, 320
Reflections on April 4, 1968, 49
Resignation, 334
Response, A, 290
Revolutionary Dreams, 106
Revolutionary Music, 68
Rituals, 151
Robin’s Poem, A, 119
Room With the Tapestry Rug, The, 343
Rose Bush, The, 280
Scrapbooks, 169
2nd Rapp, 118
Seduction, 35
Short Essay of Affirmation Explaining Why, A, 21
Sky Diving, 332
Something to Be Said for Silence, 213
Sometimes, 132
Some Uses For Them Not Stated, 130
Song for New-Ark, A, 347
Space, 276
Stardate Number 18628.190*, 358
Statement on Conservation, A, 287
Straight Talk, 167
Swaziland, 217
That Day, 294
They Clapped, 179
Their Fathers, 254
This Is Not for John Lennon, 307
Three/Quarters Time, 338
Toy Poem, 129
True Import of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro, The, 19
Turning, 288 12 Gates: To The City, 123
Two Poems: From Barbados, 92
Ugly Honkies, or The Election Game and How to Win It, 74
[Unititled], 163
[Unititled] (For Margaret Danner), 173
Universality, 58
Very Simple Wish, A, 218
Walking Down Park, 107
Way I Feel, The, 205
We, 191
When I Die, 171
When I Nap, 159
Wild Flowers, 344
Wilmington Delaware, 24
Winter, 284
Winter Poem, 148
Winter Storm, The, 247
Woman, 275
Woman Poem, 71
Women Gather, The, 197
Wonder Woman, The, 164
Word for Me…Also, A, 341
Word Poem, 36
World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be, The, 153
Yeah…But…, 134
You Are There, 285
You Came, Too, 5
You Were Gone, 346
Index of First Lines
a bright sun flower yellow tiger, 183
a flying saucer landed, 276
africa is a young man bathing, 177
all i gotta do, 111
all problems being, 232
An amoeba is lucky it’s so small, 331
and always there are the children, 223
And every now and then I think, 13
and sometimes i sit, 138
And this silly wire, 12
and when i was all alone, 84
And when she was lonely, 343
as things be/come, 36
as we all probably realize, 75
Bitter Black Bitterness, 18
brooks start with cloud condensation, 98
But I had called the office, 14
But the whole thing is a miracle—See?, 34
Cancers are a serious condition, 339
cause nobody deals with Aretha, 103
childhood remembrances are always a drag, 53
Dance with me, 338
diamonds are mined, 356
Don’t look now, 227
dreams have a way, 164
Dykes of the world are united, 41
Eagles are a majestic species, 320
ever been kidnapped, 109/
ever notice how it’s only the ugly, 74
ever want to crawl, 140
Every time the earth moves, 321
finding myself still fascinated, 264
For three hours (too short for me), 6
Frogs burrow the mud, 284
He always had pretty legs, 266
He has a girl who has flaxen hair, 4
her grandmother called her from the playground, 143
he was just a little, 93
His headstone said, 51
homosexuality, 127
Honkies always talking ‘bout, 21
how do poets write, 245
how do you write a poem, 136
i always liked house cleaning, 102
I always like summer, 59
i always wanted to be a bridesmaid, 151
i am 25 years old, 86
I am always lonely, 11
i am a teller of tales, 215
i am in a box, 240
i am old and need, 217
I am she, 342
I am the token negro, 39
I came to the crowd seeking friends, 5
i can be, 96
i don’t want you to think, 134
I dreamed of you last night, 274
if I can’t do, 269
if music is the most universal language, 206
if she wore her dresses, 200
if they put you in a jack-in-the-box poet, 129
if trees could talk, 120
if you plant grain, 119
if you sang songs i could make a request, 82
if you’ve got the key, 294
I hang on the edge, 332
i have all, 204
i have built my tower on the wings of a spider, 174
i have considered, 242
i have nine guppies, 147
i haven’t done anything, 292
i haven’t written a poem in so long, 262
i know i haven’t grown bu
t, 280
i know my upper arms will grow, 203
I love you, 334
I mean it’s only natural that if, 64
i’m a happy moile, 33
i’m giving up, 167
i’m leaving at five, 189
i’m not lonely, 30
i move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don’t, 351
in africa night walks, 220
in an age of napalmed children, 182
In front of the bank building, 235
in life, 81
in my younger years, 67
In the beginning was the word, 54
in the december of my springs, 202
i only want to, 192
i remember learning you jump, 156
i see wonder, 152
i shall save my poems, 285
I should write a poem, 272
I stood still and was a mushroom on the forest green, 7
i suppose living, 207
I think hands must be very important, 304
it’s a drag, 101
It’s a journey, 333
it’s funny that smells and sounds return, 169
It’s intriguing to me that “bookmaker” is a gambling, 301
it’s not the crutches we decry, 238
it’s so hard to love, 31
it’s so important to record, 60
It starts with a hand, 15
it’s wednesday night baby, 114
it was good for the virgin mary, 122
it was very pleasant, 158
it wouldn’t have been, 187
i used to dream militant, 106
i usta wonder who i’d be, 62
i’ve noticed i’m happier, 205
i wanta say just gotta say something, 70
i wanted to sing, 139
i want to take, 161
i want to write an image, 218
I was born in the congo, 125
i will be bitter, 254
i wish i could have been oppressed, 128
i wish i were, 133
I wrote a good omelet, 337
i wrote a poem, 253
like a will-o’-the-wisp in the night, 208
like my mother and her grandmother before, 199
Moving slowly, 326
Nigger, 19
No one asked us, 357
Not more than we can bear, 307
once a snowflake fell, 148
one day, 35
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Page 30