Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2003SYR12
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
Columbus Circle
poster information
Description
Columbus Circle
noontime pigeons peck at crumbs
shards of stained glass sun
In the mid 1980s, I was working in publishing in New York, and a friend, a spiritual mentor, suggested I write haiku as a spiritual exercise. So I did. I approached haiku as prayer almost, a way of finding spirituality in the moment, in ordinary things.
Since then, I've done it periodically. It helps me to see the whole fabric of the world in a small thing. For instance, a couple of days ago, I was having a difficult time at work. I stared out the window, and there was a tree with red berries on it covered with snow. I was having a bad day, and I said to myself, “Everything is perfect for that little tree right now, despite the turmoil I'm having, despite the cold and the snow.”
I guess you could say it takes me out of myself to see that interconnectedness. It really does work.
I was drawn to the noontime aspect of the poem, because I like to paint light. Noon light is very bright, and it's one of the nicer times of day in Syracuse.
I took photographs, did a lot of sketches, then narrowed it down. I knew I wanted to skew the perspective, so if you notice, the statue and the figure are not in proper relation. And she's not really on the ground. She's sort of floating in the summer air.
I like the expression she has, and I like the color, the bright color. It's the embodiment of a bright summer day. She's really happy and smiley. It's the nice part of Syracuse, the part I like to think of, when it's, like, six degrees outside.