A Good Cry by Nikki Giovanni (January 2018)
Giovanni's short collection of essays and poetry was my introduction to the work of one of America's most distinguished and celebrated poets. One thing I noted throughout A Good Cry was the immense value Giovanni places on using words with precision – she is a great poet, after all, and ‘using words with precision’ is one of the many ways to define the craft. There are examples of this lesson all throughout A Good Cry.
In one essay, she writes that when one person hits another in a domestic violence incident, it isn’t a fight or an argument. It’s one person hitting another. The words we’ve become accustomed to using to describe such incidents fail those who need precise definitions – they fail those who seek the truth and they fail those who need the understanding truth brings. The way we describe violence without describing the violence fails its victims and, in the process, make us all a little smaller as human beings.
She also uses verse to demonstrate the importance of using words with precision. In one poem, she rejects the idea of justice - ‘There can be no Justice / only Revenge’. In another, she takes aim at how we turn death into a taboo topic - ‘A friend was not / Lost nor did she / Transition she / Died’. Again, the way language intended to protect can lead to harm is plainly evident. Some words that shield us from the causes of our suffering also work to prevent us from healing. They make the darkness comfortable when what we really desire is the light. It’s vital to know the difference between what we can bear and what we don’t want to – language that obscures this distinction quickly loses its protective value.
I liked her point about how school and education are often confused. Many are quick to criticize ‘the education system’ or point out the need to reform ‘our failing schools’ without clarifying the difference between the two. The danger of failing to do so is to lose the strengths of each in the process of lazily combining the two concepts together (1). Like with the distinction between fact and truth, casually using two things so closely related as substitutes for each other makes things more difficult when knowing the difference between similar ideas really counts.
My favorite idea from this collection came as Giovanni wrote about Maya Angelou. She cited Angelou’s ability to find the good and praise it as among her most important qualities. Without it, she would never have been able to derive the great power that comes to a voice that always speaks to everyone in the same way.
Footnotes / no, I’m not writing about college admissions again
1. The difference between school and education…
Schools build community and teach students how to get things done on time. Education is a larger idea in the sense that people should try to educate themselves continuously throughout life. It encompasses school but includes more - all of school is a part of education but not all of education is limited to school.
