Writer’s Poem: Fear

Writer’s Poem: Fear


Today’s poem talks about the murder of a harmless spider. I don’t know whats it with poets and the killing of insects. Charles Lamb also wrote a poem (thoughtless cruelty) which was about killing a fly. But I digress. In this poem, Nikki Giovanni briefly contemplates the logic behind her killing of a spider who did nothing to her, except that she was frightened of it. Is her fear a valid reason to cause harm to it.

A lot of people have used this poem to talk about the happenings of today, especially, the killings of black people by some white cops based on the irrational reason of fear. They feared the black person and they shot the black person. Ridiculous, I know, but it happens, sadly. Let me know what you think about the poem below.

Allowables by Nikki Giovanni

I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn’t
And she scared me
And I smashed her

I don’t think
I’m allowed

To kill something

Because I am


On to today’s question. Tam asks: What was the inspiration behind randoms by a random?

Haha I’ve actually answered this question before. But here goes again, there was zero inspiration behind this blog. Like, I don’t even know why I started the blog in the first place, but it most definitely was not supposed to be a poetry or a mental health blog, which it is now. I think I just wanted to try my hands in so many things, inspirational writes ups and other random things. I wanted to experiment, and hence its random name “Randoms by a random”. I really need to get a better name.

I hope that answers the question. Thank you Tam.

12 thoughts on “Writer’s Poem: Fear

  1. This poem does make one think. We find it so quickly act out because of our fear and our fears so many times are wrong! Thanks for sharing!
    And even though you may not know why you started a blog, I am so glad that you did. I wouldn’t have “met” you if you had never started blogging. That would be sad. 🙂 Obviously you were meant too! You have touched many with your posts my sweet friend!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. What an extremely powerful poem, and as someone who is frightened of all things creepy-crawly and has definitely killed a spider or two out of fear, this poem actually made me stop and think about the bigger message of it all. Fear is a valid and necessary feeling, but when does fear become irrational? Is it over to kill a poisonous brown recluse spider simply because there is potential in its harm to you, even if it isn’t harming you at the moment? Would killing it after it has bitten you already be too late? And of course, the gist of these questions can be applied to the current situation of Black Lives Matter and the racism of many police officers.

    P.S. I think your blog is very aptly named! I’ve missed your posts and poems! Can’t wait to catch up, and hope you’ve been well Ameena!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Ohhhh Jade! It made me so happy to see you up on my notification. Where have u been, I missed you.
      Ever since I read thoughtless cruelty (about killing a fly), I feel so bad killing an insect. Now, Unless I catch a mosquito on my skin in the process of sucking my blood, I find it difficult to kill it.
      And yeah, that poem By Nikki Giovanni is exactly what you called it- powerful

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ameenaaa! I’ve been finishing my last year of studies and I finally graduated this past summer, and then I spent the summer finishing my first poetry book. My beta readers are currently reading the book and they’ll let me know if it sucks LOL. I’ve missed you too! And now that I’m back, I’ll be doing a lot of catching up.

        Hope you’ve been doing well ❤


Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s