Blues: For All the Changes. - Review - book reviews

American Visions, Oct, 1999 by Denolyn Carroll

Blues: For All the Changes by Nikki Giovanni (William Morrow and Co. 1999. $15, hardcover)--"I like my generation for trying to hold these truths to be self-evident. I like us for using the weapons we had. I like us for holding on and even now we continue to share what we hope and know what we wish," writes Nikki Giovanni in "The Faith of a Mustard Seed (In the Power of a Poem)," one of 52 original pieces that make up her first collection of all new verses since 1985. In Blues, Giovanni shows that her craft and her faith are capable of both triggering and sustaining that power. After 30 years as an award-winning poet and an activist, Giovanni writes here with an authority informed by experience and shared with heart-stealing candor. The collection (divided into two sections: "flatted thirds and sevenths" and "fugue") offers thoughts on her battle with illness, on nature, and on the everyday--all laced with doses of harsh reality, a mix of socio-political viewpoints, and personal memories of loss.

Her titles speak volumes: "A Civil Rights Journey," "The President's Penis," "Yvonne and David," "Nobody Trusts Silence," "Me and Mrs. Robin" and "The Last Poem."

Denolyn Carroll is a freelance writer and editor in New York City. She also lectures on writing and editing at Pace University. Her last article for American Visions, "Premium Fare," appeared in the August/September 1999 issue.