Chicago for free

Walking Down Park

BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

  "walking down park 
amsterdam
or columbus do you ever stop
to think what it looked like
before it was an avenue
did you ever stop to think
what you walked 
before you rode 
subways to the stock 
exchange (we can’t be on
the stock exchange 
we are the stock 
exchanged)"

"did you ever maybe wonder

what grass was like before   

they rolled it

into a ball and called   

it central park"

"ever wonder why

so much asphalt was laid

in so little space"

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177834

I decided to start this post with extracts from this poem by Nikki Giovanni as it reflects exactly how I feel about built up spaces. Do read the rest of it, too.

Chlorophyll runs in my veins. I am a farmer's granddaughter. My inheritance is a hamper full of memories of my dear grandfather's love for his garden- the love with which he would sew little cloth bags to protect the grapes on the vine from the birds or the joy with which he used to pull out a tender radish from the ground, shake off the dirt and offer it to me to eat- washing vegetables was so overrated in his opinion. I ate organic food before I came across the word 'organic'.

My camera became chlorophyllous, too,  when I walked down Michigan Avenue in Chicago this summer. Here are some of the pictures I took of the avenue and some other well known Chicago spots.

Piggy in the middle...paavam.

Love these loos.

The Chicago River