Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Nikki Rosa Poem

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177827

Please write a one paragraph response about the speaker's feelings regarding her childhood. 

20 comments:

  1. Talisyanna
    I think even though her childhood had there bad times she still had good times too. like good birthdays and christmases and other holidays or maybe just regular days like having a picnic at the park or just playing with her sister. I know that my childhood was kind of hard sometimes and I remeber it all but I also remeber the good times I had, like going to the beach with my family and having fun learning how to swim, or on Easter when we all went to my cousin's house and had easter egg hunts. I also believe that even when you try to tell somebody about your family sometimes they won't understand because they haven't been through it to realize how good or bad it really was. Sometimes I have friends that don't understand how bad things are when I try to tell them something or how good things are when im so happy. So I understand when she says "And though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that
    concerns you
    and though they fought a lot
    it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference." Lastly I understand when she says "Black love is Black wealth." I believe its ture and it will always be ture. What im really tring to say is that nobody's family is perfect your just going to have to live with it. That's how I see it.

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  2. Pierrot
    I concur with this poem. Nikki states in the poem that "it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference
    but only that everybody is together and you
    and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
    Christmases". In my childhood even though things didn't always end up as i wanted them to be.At the end of the day I was still ecstatic to be with my family, and to have that one last laugh ,and have that hope left in you that everything would be all right. In Nikki's childhood it seemed that the presence of her family always being with her was her joy and happiness, that a person might of believed that since she was poor,that she wasn't satisfied with her life.But as she stated "they’ll
    probably talk about my hard childhood
    and never understand that
    all the while I was quite happy". This part inspired me because it made me think and understand, that no matter how hard life gets,that it'll always get better and someone else always has it worse.

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  3. I like that this poem includes two different themes that are equally important, in my opinion. The first is the strength of family love, and the second is stereotypes. I think that Nikki Giovanni is saying that just because something looks a certain way from the outside doesn't mean it's actually that way. You have to experience it from the inside in order to completely understand it. She says that when white biographers write about famous black people's childhoods, they focus on the negatives: "living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet," poverty, parents who fight, drinking. The many positives are often ignored. For her and her sister, it was far more important that her whole family was deeply connected and loving. They had happy holidays and family gatherings, understood each other's feelings, and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life, like "how good the water felt when you got your bath", having good food, and just being together. Poor families are seen as inherently unhappy, but this isn't always true. Nikki Giovanni doesn't want her childhood to be misrepresented. A family can struggle be truly happy at the same time.
    Leyana D.

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  4. I think it is a great poem and have a great message. I think most black people who are of her age or older have gone through the same childhood or even worse. She should forget about it like a bad dream and carry on. It won't be easy but it is better to do so.She should rember a part of her childhood which was good as her childhood memory. I have also been through a rough childhood back in the Refugee camp. It's not easy to forget those bad memmories but I only try to remember good memmories. I think that the one who suppers knows the pain. It is the same with Niki. I agree that Black love is Black wealth.

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  5. Even though i have never experienced a tough childhood like this i can relate to this because my grandmother and great grandmother have similar stories to the one Nikki relays in her poem. i love the way how people enjoy the finer things in life such as love, family, and spending quality time with one another other than money and material thing. this reminds me of a song i love called - cost me alot by j cole you should give it a listen to understand what i am talking about

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  6. The way i see it, the speaker in the poem doesn't like people talking about her childhood because no one understands her. She says many consider her childhood a hardship, while she considers it a happy one. To her, all she needed to be happy was to see her family stuck together in times of problems. She also doesn't like people writing biographies, for all they do is tell lies about how she felt as a child. So, while she was happy all throughout her childhood, people just go on and start saying how hard it was for her as a child, which is why she doesn't want anyone, especially the white, to write anything about her.

    Alphonse M.

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  7. The way i see it, the speaker doesn't like how people think about her childhood. During her childhood, she went through hardship, but all she needed was her family and she did have her family. She says, anyone saying that she had a difficult childhood is lying, because she was happy most of the time, for her family was always there for her. It doesn't matter how hard it was for her or how much problems she went through, as long as her family was together, that's all the happiness she needed. Also, she doen't want anyone, especially the "white," writing about her childhood, because they have no idea what "Black love" is, and they might just focus on how hard her childhood was, and not even know that all the time she was actually happy.

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  8. The speaker of this poem admits that her child hood has been bad because she remembers living in woodland with no inside toilet, but she manged to make the best out of the worst and enjoyed,her mothers love and family fun. She feels that it's the little things that were the most important to her and it's the little things that she remembers and cherish the most. Also she hates when people act like they understand her child hood and understand her pains, but only mansion her hardships, but not her good times. over all I love the poem it's great and true. I like how Nikki knows where she is from and what she values, thats important skill to have because it gives you self esteem and it's something no body can take away from you................. Zeytun Aden..... Nikki Rosa response.

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  9. This poem is very intresting and truthful, even though her and her family were in poverty they made the best of their situation. They still celebrated holidays, birtdays, and try to stay positive about their lives. And it seems as if for every negative there was a positive, or they gained something good out of it. She was happy that she had a mother, and even though her mother and father fought and her father drank they stayed together. "Black love is Black wealth" i believe that when she said that she ment that the love her family shared over- ruled the their bad conditions and struggles with money.

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  10. this poem is very true. nikki rose childhood had some hardship and struggles, but she had her good time also. what she remember are the good times, her sister birthday and christmases. she doesnt want people to talk about her or write about her, especially white people because they dont understand her childhood. they will only write about the hardship not knowing she was quite happy. that black love is black weath, that family are the most important things and childhood memories will be like drags that cant be quit or erased and will be stick on the back of your brain.

    -werdi mugaya

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  11. I think this peom was what the nikki giovanni wanted to say aboiut her childhood. She says that no biographer will ever be able to capture her true feelings of her childhood so she wanted to give her own account of it. Most people would see a poor black home with the father as a drinker as a bad childhood, yet she still says she was happy. All of their poverty and fighting meant nothing in her childhood as much as all their holidays, family time and overall love in their home. That is what i think the author means by the line "Black love is Black wealth". Because her wealth was not matterial, but her richness in family.
    - Unique B.

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  12. I think that the writer Nikki is saying people think black childhoods were hard. Nikki is saying that as long as she has her family that she is happy. "Black love is Black wealth", she feels like white people just don't understand that just because you live in poverty doesn't mean that you can't be happy. My grandfather would talk a lot about how hard it was for him growing up during segregation and I think that's the time period this poem is in.

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  13. the author trys to make somthing positive out of everything. no matter how hard it was for her if it was her race or her family problems she would find somthing positive out of it. she also mentions that the rich have it a lot better with less problems and the poor has it the worst. but i think sahe relizes that when you have less your family seems to be closer and to her thats all that matters.

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  14. I Think Niki Rosa Was Talking about how People Look Down on poor people and see that they have nothing so they think There not very Happy Because They have Very Little But What she's trying to say Is You don't need Money Or A Great childhood to be Happy all You need is Family that's there for you Family that Never turn there Back a mother and father that's there every birthday and Christmas even kno There not perfect there Perfect in her eyes . I Also Believe People always Look At what they don't have than what They do , You don't Need the World to be Happy you Only need those who Makes You Happy In Your World .-Terriyahda

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  15. I Believe what Niki Rosa Was Trying to Say was People Look at Poor people as Unhappy Because they don't Have what Others Have . && i Believe she was Trying to say You don't need money to be happy All You need is Family an even know her mom and dad wasn't perfect the fact that they were there for birthdays and Christmas Is what Mad them Perfect to her . I Also believe that You don't need the world to be happy you just need those who makes you happy in Your world . <3 && That's what she was trying to say . Those who is in her life makes her happy even if she didn't have a Good Childhood she had a GREAT family .

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  16. I think this poem is really straight-forward and real. Basically she was talking about all the hardships and struggles throught her life that molded her into the person she is today. She had really strong points. I like the last few sentences when she basically was saying that outsiders looking in would think being poor would leave you in a depression mode for life and unhappy etc. but, honestly those struggles brought her family and her closer together.
    - Tomei W.

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  17. I like this poem a lot. Nikki talks about the struggles she faced that didn’t always have to do with money. Money couldn’t make up for a father that drunk all the time. Or whose parents fought alot. But the important thing was being together around the holidays as a family. Even though you just watched as your father sold his stocks family was more important. Being able to bathe was important. Having a mother all to yourself was greater then having money. Caucasians couldn’t possibly understand that, to Nikki, because they didn’t face the African American struggle. “Black Love is Black Wealth” and they couldn’t understand that because to them Wealth is Love. They would say she had a hard childhood as if she was oppressed but all in all she wasn’t. She was happy.

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  18. My interpretation of the poem is based upon Nikki Giovanni's last comment "they’ll
    probably talk about my hard childhood
    and never understand that
    all the while I was quite happy". Based on this she appears to be stating that despite all of her hardships and how these factors may be a hindrance to some, have only assisted in her development as African American, as a woman, and as a person. |-|Malik Brooks|-|

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  19. I liked this poem because it was realistic, but it was still likable. I thought the part about Block love is Black wealth was nice. It made me think about how most black people didn't have a lot of money but they had their love, family, and friendship to make them all the richer. However, I did Not like the part where she talked about hoping that a white person wouldn't write bad things about her. Any body might have written rude or inappropriate things about her, no matter what color they were. And I'm sure anyone would agree. Brianna Gillespie

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  20. I feel that this poem was very strongly worded. The message that this poem brings across is that no one can truly understand your feelings. When your upset or angry or happy about something, no one can ever explain exactly why you feel like that. Our emotions can come across differently than how we feel and Nikki concludes this when she states that she hopes no white person ever writes about her feelings because they can't comprehend them unless they were her.

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