This haiku reminded me of growing up in Vermont. We lived on a dirt road, and we had a lot of red-winged black birds and goldenrod and, of course, snow.

I also liked the graphic idea of the bird swaying, which I ended up incorporating. I have the goldenrod crisscrossing the page with the haiku's lines fitting the curve of the stalks. The black bird is on one stalk. He's got one leg stretched out, and the other, short, held up to his chest. That's how they balance.

I'm not a birdwatcher. I've just always loved nature. Here at Syracuse University, I miss a lot of that. People from the city going to SU think of Syracuse as the country, but to me it is the opposite.