Nikki Giovanni

This is Nikki Giovanni. One of the most established and diverse poets. I LOVE HER POETRY. Not to mention I just met her today and she is just one of the most educated, diverse, funniest people ever. I just love her soul. She's written over 26 books and can you believe she is 65! She does not look it, trust.

Her latest poetry book: Bicycles is in stores now!!! Go get it. I already got my autographed copy =)

And here's my favorite poem of hers:

EGO-TRIPPIN

I was born in the Congo.

I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built the sphinx.

I designed a pyramid so tough that a star that only glows every one hundred years falls

into the center giving divine perfect light.

I am bad.

I sat on the throne drinking nectar with Allah.

I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe to cool my thirst.

My oldest daughter is Nefertiti.

The tears from my birth pains created the Nile.

I am a beautiful woman.

I gazed on the forest and burned out the Sahara desert.

With a packet of goat's meat and a change of clothes, I crossed it in two hours.

I am a gazelle so swift, so swift you can't catch me.

For a birthday present when he was three,

I gave my son Hannibal an elephant.

He gave me Rome for mother's day.

My strength flows ever on.

My son Noah built an ark and I stood proudly at the helm as we sailed on a soft summer day.

I turned myself into myself and was Jesus.

Men intone my loving name.

All praises all praises, I am the one who would save.

I sowed diamonds in my back yard.

My bowels deliver uranium.

The filings from my fingernails are semi-precious jewels.

On a trip north, I caught a cold and blew my nose giving oil to the Arab world.

I am so hip even my errors are correct.

I sailed west to reach east and had to round off the earth as I went.

The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid across three continents.

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal.

I cannot be comprehended except by my permission.

I mean...I...can fly like a bird in the sky...