It wasn’t my intention to post two Nikki Giovanni poems in a row, but what can I say, I saw the poem whilst scrolling through my poetry album and couldn’t wait till next week, I mean, who knows if we’ll see next week right?
That being said, I have to agree with Nikki Giovanni when she said, this decade would be known for loneliness. I look around me and despite such a large number of people, billions of us on this earth, yet a staggering number of us are lonely. Not alone, but lonely. Below is the poem:
Cotton on a rainy day by Nikki Giovanni
Don’t look now
I’m fading away
Into the gray of my mornings
Or the blues of every night
Is it that my nails
keep breaking
Or maybe the corn
on my secind little piggy
Things keep popping out
on my face or of my life
It seems no matter how
I try I become more difficult
to hold
I am not an easy woman
to want
They have asked
the psychiatrists . . . psychologists . . .
politicians and social workers
What this decade will be
known for
There is no doubt . . . it is
loneliness.
Today’s question is from Ingrid. She asks, “What’s your secret to keeping the blog up all these years?”.
To be honest, I am surprised that I kept this blog up for all these years. It has a bit to do with the fact that I write the most, when I have a blog. I realized that when ever I take my blogging break (which lasts for months), I write very little. So being aware of that fact, helped to keep this blog going. Also, the response I’ve gotten from the community. Another thing, is the WordPress family in my niche. I have been blessed to have such an awesome community, filled with people who check up on me in my absence , people who welcome me with open arms upon my return and those who encourage me to never put the pen down.
Perhaps we can partially lay the blame for loneliness on our addiction to technology? It would seem that so much is written, but little spoken, as a result of texting. Our social skills must surely be suffering because we are bypassing the body language component of communicating. If we believe that we are happy simply texting on a regular basis, then we should perhaps ask ourselves “Are we lonely when we are alone?”
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Technology definitely contributes in my opinion too.
Because some times, the connections made via texting are often superficial.
Now Being lonely when alone would be even more worrying. I think we should be able to be comfortable with being alone at times
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Totally agree with your last sentence Ameena. It should be possible to be alone and be very happy. I used to bike ride alone as a teenager and loved the freedom. So many people however equate alone with lonely which, apart from being grammatically incorrect, simply sets up the individual to some pre-determined unhappy state. I have also been happily alone when in the company of another. This is a rare circumstance for me but, with that one person, I can be in total silence (absorbed by my own thoughts), and not feel obligated to say something. She was much the same which, presumably, was why it worked! Always nice to hear from you Ameena. 🙂
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I can definitely relate to this one. There could be a great many ways that a writer could be lonely. Maybe it’s the way we are by nature. Dreamers. We can live in other worlds, become new people, but in reality, we aren’t physically connecting with others.
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This is very true.. Maybe that is one of the reasons why we write.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this
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Oh definitely. I agree with you there. You’re very welcome.
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This is filled with insight, and yes we are often lonely even in crowds of people.
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Thank you very much.
We are…
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I love the quote 🙂
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Thank you very much
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Thank you! I’m glad you do
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Unfortunately this is the new world.<3
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Thank you for the poem Ameena
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Aww thank you for reading
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You are very welcome Ameena
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I agree, unfortunately, that this decade will be known for loneliness. This is such a poignant poem, Ameena. Thank you for sharing!
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Its so sad to be hones… I watched a docu recently on statistics of loneliness in the UK. It was staggering
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Thank you for showing me this poet. Never heard of them but I love this poem 😊
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Aww Thank you! I’m glad i introduced you to a new poem 😁
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