The Chicago Picasso
August 15, 1967

"Mayor Daley tugged a white ribbon, loosing the blue percale wrap. A hearty cheer went up as the covering slipped off the big steel sculpture that looks at once like a bird and a woman."                   --Chicago Sun-Times

(Seiji Ozawa leads the Symphony.The Mayor smiles.And 50,000 See.)

Does man love Art? Man visits Art, but squirms.
Art hurts. Art urges voyages--
and it is easier to stay at home,
the nice beer ready.
            In commonrooms
we belch, or sniff, or scratch.
Are raw.

But we must cook ourselves and style ourselves for Art, who
is a requiring courtesan.
We squirm.
We do not hug the Mona Lisa.
We
may touch or tolerate
an astounding fountain, or a horse-and-rider.
At most, another Lion.

Observe the tall cold of a Flower
which is as innocent and as guilty,
as meaningful and as meaningless as any
other flower in the western field.


GWENDOLYN BROOKS, won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her poetry collections include " A Street in Bronzeville," "Annie Allen" (which garnered the Pulitzer) and" In the Mecca" (nominated for the 1968 National Book Award). She has also authored a novel, "Maud Martha," books for children and two autobiographical volumes titled "Report from Part One" and "Report from Part Two." Her collected poems, Blacks, represents the wide span of her career and demonstrates her ongoing, consistent commitment to the life of Black men and women in America and to the craft of poety. For many years, Brooks has been Poet Laureate of Illinois.

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