For poetry that rejects timidity, flirts with outrage and embraces the deep laughter heard in industrial kitchens, used car garages and underused libraries -- The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni is an indispensable guidebook.

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni includes '60s movement poetry as well as odes to artists, dusty porches and the blues. Giovanni's melodic poetry -- sometimes smooth, sometimes skittish -- is always adventurous. She is an authoritative poet who is unafraid to marry cultural sentiment with her art.

My favorite Giovanni poems challenge the reader to consider the implications of choice in our lives:

if I can't do
what I want to do
then my job is to not
do what I don't want
to do

She builds a wall between herself and petty excuses not to live on her own terms. The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni just might be the perfect way to feel emboldened throughout your day.