Fascinations

Fascinations 
CC: Well I don't have a hyperlink but I will type the poem below.

Fascinations ~ Nikki Giovanni

finding myself still fascinated

by the falls and rapids

i nonetheless prefer the streams

contained within the bountiful brown shoreline

i prefer the inland waters

to the salty seas

knowing that journeys end

as they begin

the sailor and his sail

the lover and her beloved

the light of day and night’s darkness

i walk the new york streets

the heat rising in waves

to singe my knees

my head is always down

for i no longer look for you

usually i am cold no matter

what the temperature

i hunch my hands in the pockets of my pants

hoping you will be home

when i get there

i know i’m on dangerous ground

i misread you smile all year

assured that you and therefore everything

was all right

i wade from the quiet

of your presence into the turbulence

of your emotions

i have now understood a calm day

does not preclude a stormy evening

con edison after all went out

why should you

and though it took longer than anyone thought

the lights did come back on

why shouldn’t yours

electricity is a product of the sea

as much as the air

coming from turbulence

as much as generators

if you were a pure bolt

of fire cutting the skies

i’d touch you risking my life

not because i’m brave or strong

but because i’m fascinated

by what the outcome will be

Giovanni uses the duality between the light of the day and the darkness of the night, the motif of “water” and emotion to capture her fascination in regards to life. As the reader, when one thinks of the title Fascination, one thinks of being intensely interested at whatever one is focusing on. To the reader, Giovanni is the speaker. The tone throughout the poem is lyrical, which expresses her emotional and inner feelings and reflective, which illustrates her innermost thoughts. The poet’s style is free-verse and not rhyme, but Giovanni does clearly provide five, organized stanzas. The motif of “water” was used to symbolize emotion. Giovanni constantly uses the motif of “water” to express her fascination with life and its jovial times, gloomy times and its trials. Giovanni opens with the first stanza with, “I nonetheless prefer the streams contained within the bountiful brown shoreline, I prefer the inland waters to the salty sea.” This expresses Giovanni’s reflective tone and highlights that she is constantly fascinated with nature. She also says “the sailor and his sail, the lover and her beloved the light of day and night’s darkness.” This again expresses Giovanni’s reflective tone and highlights the duality between the light of the day and the darkness of the night. The importance of the duality was to convey the light and dark merging together like the lover and her beloved and the sailor and his sail. Giovanni then shifts the tone from reflective to lyrical when she says, “I know I’m on dangerous ground, I misread your smile all year assured that you and therefore everything was all right.” This expresses her fascination with someone and not something and to also express her inner feelings for the person she is mostly fascinated about.  Throughout the poem, Giovanni’s message to the reader was to convey that one should always take risk and go through different experiences to know what life has to generate and the aftermath.