Many of these poems and essays are more peaceful than Nikki's previous works that I'm familiar with, coming to her work as did much of the country, after the Virginia Tech massacre. Chasing Utopia (which opens with beer don't you know,) has more food, and down home, and weather, and family. Other poets, friends, washing dishes for a quarter, the right way to cook your biscuits. There's still some righteous anger, and "these are our heroes," because let's never forget who Nikki Giovanni is, she is a Poet-Activist with a capital P, and a capital A, when she's not being that she's a Poet-Human same rules apply to the capitalsMysteryBlack WomanMotherProfessor (Distinguished)and she's over 600 years old look it up and Poet is garlic and her words are going to drill their way right down into your soul and your heart, and maybe your belly too because she'll tell you the truth if you let her.And let the poems flow From tears of laughter From sweat of work From the deliciousness of tomorrowTo the knowledge of Today Even though I'm far from being the expert on poetry in my family, I do like to occasionally dabble in what I'd consider to be "popular" poetry or "easy" poetry or "does not require interpretation"poetry. I'll just have to cross my fingers that my poet brother doesn't read this post. I know he'd disapprove and encourage me to try something harder, but poetry remains one genre that very seriously intimidates me. Anything beyond the most basic, accessible to the common man poetry goes right over my head. While I'm probably over-confident in all other areas of reading and comprehension, contemporary/modern poetry is hard for me. But that doesn't mean I avoid all of it. I have a few trusted poets with styles that even I can understand. Giovanni is one of these and I try to read her work whenever I have the chance.Her latest work, Chasing Utopia, is a prose and poetry hybrid, dealing with family, food, and friends. I'm honestly somewhat on the fence regarding how I felt about this one. It definitely wasn't my favorite work of Giovanni's. Like I said, I'm really insecure in my knowledge of modern poetry, but several of these poems didn't feel very considered to me. I was looking for a deeper meaning, but just finding surface sentiments. Of course, a few selections did jump out at me as being particularly lovely. My favorite took one of her older poems and showed how she had originally written it and then compared it to her final edited version, alongside her thoughts on editing poetry.Overall, I think it's another good book to read if you're looking for an introductory point to poetry. If you're overwhelmed by the depth of modern poetry and find yourself, like me, lost as to the deeper meanings, Giovanni is a great place to start. But I'm not sure I'd recommend this book over some of her others, Acolytes or Love Poems to name a few.
What do You think about Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013)?
A bit of poetry with a bit of prose was perfect as bedtime reading.
—Peter
One of my favorite Giovanni reads since My House.
—radhika
