support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.

More information is at walton family foundation.org. Do you think about the legacy that you will leave behind? No.

Wow, I'm surprised by that answer.

Huh.

Because it gets you caught up in your life, and that's not what you're like.

Your life is not about your life.

Life is about your duty.

I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard.

The game where cards control the conversation.

Each week, my guest chooses questions at random from a deck of cards.

Pick a card one through three.

Questions about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped them.

My guest this week is poet Nikki Giovanni.

When you look at the stars and then you think about the other life forms,

you think, well, there is something else. I can't quit now. There is something else.

There are so many words I could use to describe my guest today. Poet, revolutionary, queer icon,

feminist, space enthusiast, mother and grandmother, legend.

Nikki Giovanni is all those things. But she is also a woman who figured out really early

that she didn't have to apologize to anyone for who she was or for what she wanted from her life.

She can write poems that look directly at all

the pain and hatred in the world, and she can write children's books about feeling safe and loved.

She can also conjure what it will look like when humans set up shop on Mars and black women

...