Poets in Outer Space
Dedicated to Nikki Giovanni 
By Paula G. Akinwole

I had the honor of sitting in during a podcast by TV Jerry where I had the opportunity to chat with Nikki Giovanni and read the below poem to her.

There are poets in outer space

Who got there by accident

Wrote themselves so high

That they were outer 

before they knew inner 

Looking about 

at how expansive and sparkling and fascinating 

But failed to realize

How vast and dark and alone

There are poets in outer space

The kind that never called themselves poet

Who took a hot air balloon ride or rocket ship

Didn’t write one word the whole journey

They be watching and waiting

Say they hoping inspiration might strike

But lightning strikes too

At least that would be something to write about

There are poets in outer space

Who bargained with the moon to host a slam

In exchange for a milky way feature

Got Mercury and Pluto as guest judges

All the stars are scoring 30s

And all the constellations are reminiscing

About when they were the celestial body to beat

The Grand prize?

You too become a galaxy

There are poets in outer space

Who only write about the stuff on earth

And poets in outer space

That can’t remember which planet they from

And poets in outer space

Who got mommas and grandmas up here too

Poets who ain’t left the ground yet

Still got work to do there

Things to poet about there

Got dreams of Mars as their final resting place

Greetings to the poets in outer space

And inner space and of space itself

Who give us something to dream about

Who encourage us to write cloudy

like there’s no dark matter to worry about

We wish on you like a Star

You got me spacing out

Got me high tripping in the sky 

Thinking someday, I want to go to Mars too

May I visit you there?