FAVORITES OF OTHER POETS

I Wrote A Good Omelet

Nikki Giovanni

I wrote a good omelet...and ate a hot poem...

after loving you

Buttoned my car...and drove my coat home...in the rain...

after loving you 

I goedd on red...and stopped on green

floating somewhere in between...being here and being there...

after loving you

I rolled my bed...turned down my hair...

slightly confused but...i don't care...

Laid out my teeth...and gargled my gown...then i stood...

and laid me down...to sleep...

after loving you

I Love You
Roy Croft

I love you, not only for what you are,

But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,

but for what you are making of me.

I love you, for the part of me that you bring out.

I love you, for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart,

and passing over all the foolish, weak things that you can’t help dimly seeing there,

and for drawing out, into the light, all the beautiful belongings

that no one else had looked quite far enough to find.

I love you, because you are helping me

to make of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a temple.

Out of the works of my every day, not a reproach, but a song.

I love you, because you have done more than any creed could have done

to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.

You have done it without a touch, without a word, without a sign.

You have done it by being yourself.

Perhaps that is what being a friend means, after all.

Resignation

Nikki Giovanni

I love you
because the Earth turns round the sun
because the North wind blows north
sometimes
because the Pope is Catholic
and most Rabbis Jewish
because winters flow into spring
and the air clears after a storm
because only my love for you 
despite the charms of gravity
keeps me from falling off the Earth
into another dimension
I love you 
because it is the natural order of things
I love you 
like the habit I picked up in college
of sleeping through lectures
or saying I'm sorry
when I get stopped for speeding
because I drink a glass of water
in the morning
and chain-smoke cigarettes
all through the day
because I take my coffee Black
and my milk with chocolate
because you keep my feet warm
though my life a mess
I love you 
because I don't want it 
any other way
I am helpless
in m love for you
It makes me so happy
to hear you call my name
I am amazed you can resist
locking me in an echo chamber
where your voice reverberates
through the four walls 
sending me into spasmatic ecstasy 
I love you
because it's been so good
for so long
that if I didn't love you
I'd have to be born again
and that is not a theological statement
I am pitiful in my love for you
The Dells tell me Love
is so simple
the thought though of you
sends indescribably delicious multitudinous 
thrills throughout and through-in my body
I love you
because no two snowflakes are alike
and it is possible if you stand tippy-toe
to walk between the raindrops
I love you
because I am afraid of the dark
and can't sleep in the light
because I rub my eyes
when I wake up in the morning
and find you there
because you with all your magic powers were
determined that 
I should love you
because there was nothing for you but that
I would love you
I love you 
because you made me
want to love you
more than I love my privacy
my freedom my commitments
and responsibilities
I love you `cause I changed my life 
to love you
because you saw me one friday
afternoon and decided that I would 
love you
I love you I love you I love you

Balances

Nikki Giovanni

in life 
one is always
balancing
like we juggle our mothers
against our fathers
or one teacher 
against another
(only to balance our grade average)
3 grains of salt
to one ounce truth
our sweet black essence
or the funky honkies down the street
and lately I've begun wondering 
if you re trying to tell me something
we used to talk all night
and do things alone together
and i've begun
(as a reaction to a feeling)
to balance
the pleasure of loneliness
against the pain 
of loving you

In and Out of Time

Maya Angelou

The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance...
our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out of time.
When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun
and the first tree struggled up from the forest floor
I had always loved you more.
You freed your braids...
gave your hair to the breeze.
It hummed like a hive of honey bees.
I reached in the mass for the sweet honey comb there....
Mmmm...God how I love your hair.
You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.
Lost, injured, hurt by chance.
I screamed to the heavens....loudly screamed....
Trying to change our nightmares to dreams...
The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out
in and out
in and out
of time.

Young Buck Lovin' on the Kitchen Floor
Jill Scott

He thought cuz he had split it
That he had did it
He thought he took her to heaven's gate
Thought he shined the right shoe
And put it on the good foot
Thought with all his testosterone pumping
His hips popping and jumping
That he had taken her on the ride of the millennium

Plus some
And
Although he had pounced on her body
"hit that"
"tapped that"
"wore that out"
with new passion and speed
All he truly managed to do
was make it sting
when she peed