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Walking Down Park

By Nikki Giovanni b. 1943 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

where syphilitic dogs

and their two-legged tubercular

masters fertilize

the corners and side-walks

ever want to know what would happen

if your life could be fertilized

by a love thought

from a loved one

who loves you

ever look south

on a clear day and not see

time’s squares but see

tall Birch trees with sycamores

touching hands

and see gazelles running playfully

after the lions

ever hear the antelope bark

from the third floor apartment

ever, did you ever, sit down

and wonder about what freedom’s freedom

would bring

it’s so easy to be free

you start by loving yourself

then those who look like you

all else will come

naturally

ever wonder why

so much asphalt was laid

in so little space

probably so we would forget

the Iroquois, Algonquin

and Mohicans who could caress

the earth

ever think what Harlem would be

like if our herbs and roots and elephant ears

grew sending

a cacophony of sound to us

the parrot parroting black is beautiful black is beautiful

owls sending out whooooo’s making love ...

and me and you just sitting in the sun trying

to find a way to get a banana tree from one of the monkeys

koala bears in the trees laughing at our listlessness

ever think its possible

for us to be

happy

Nikki Giovanni, “Walking Down Park” from The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. Copyright © 1996 by Nikki Giovanni. Used with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (2003)

Biography

Nikki Giovanni is one of the best-known African-American poets who reached prominence during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her unique and insightful poetry testifies to her own evolving awareness and experiences: from child to young woman, from naive college freshman to seasoned civil rights activist, from daughter to mother. Frequently anthologized, Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride and respect for family. Her . . .

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