Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2005SYR08
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
Heron Stands Upright
poster information
Description
heron stands upright
tail feathers brush stream waters
teaching me stillness
I go to the Zen Center, in the Valley, for sitting meditation. After sittings, I often walk along Onondaga Creek, especially in the summer, when there's no snow there.
So I was walking along the creek and crossed a little footbridge. I was standing on the footbridge, looking upstream, and I saw a heron. It was standing there so still—the way they do, with the beak held horizontal—with the stream water flowing around its legs.
The line I wrote was, “tail feathers brush stream waters,” but it was the other way around, actually stream water brushing tail feathers. Somehow, between the stillness of the bird and the motion of the stream, I just found it very beautiful.
So that's what happened: I did the sitting, I came out and did the walk, and there was my teacher, standing perfectly still.
When I think of poster design, I think of iconic imagery—something that captures the viewer's attention in a glance. And I think if one is to design a poster the typography and the image must speak to one another. The classic art deco posters do this fabulously and that is what I attempted to do.
I chose this poem because I believe that the heron is not only iconic to Syracuse but to all of Central NY as well. From the Utica Marsh to the Canal to Syracuse the heron is everywhere in all its serene beauty.