Summarize or explicate Nikki Giovanni's poem "Dreams," and identify the themes of the poem.

I believe that in Nikki Giovanni's poem "Dreams," she is
being ironic in speaking about her dreams and society's expectation that black people
weren't supposed to have any.

She writes that when she was
young, she didn't realize that a black person was not allowed to have dreams. (I detect
some sarcasm here, I think...)

Based on what she writes in
her poem, Nikki Giovanni wanted to be a singer. She writes of being a raelet, saying "dr
o wn d in my young tears," "marjorie hendricks," and "grind all up against the mic and
scream..." These are all allusions to the music/entertainment
business.

The Raelettes were back-up singers for Ray
Charles, and Margie Hendricks was one of the singers in this
group.

So for the early years of her life, while she still
believed she could dream any dream (when people of all colors and races dream), Giovanni
writes that she wanted to be a backup singer for Ray Charles. As she got older, however
(and this is where we detect the irony), she figured she would have to settle down and
become "sweet inspiration."

The reason I find this ironic
is that singing might have been fun, and seemed very important at one time, but when she
grew up, she did not really realize
she couldn't have dreams. She may have realized that some people weren't about to easily
let her pursue her dreams, but maturity changed her, and she
"settled" (not likely) for being able to quietly (like the eye of a hurricane...) and
sweetly change the world through her poetry.

And so, the
message (theme) we find here is that dreams are fine, but as we grow up, sometimes those
dreams change into new dreams and become more powerful than we could ever have imagined.
She thought she would sing be heard; instead she writes and touches hearts and minds
instead—and she is heard in, it would seem, a more meaningful
way.

The tone of the poem seems to suggest that this is
just fine with her.