Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2005SYR10
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
With Grace, Salmon Pink
poster information
Description
With grace, salmon pink
flamingos stand on one leg
snoozing at the zoo
I remember the day of this poem very exactly. It was one of those beautiful Central New York summer days, and it was my birthday. My husband and I went to the Gifford Zoo. And there they were—the flamingoes! There were elegant, a brilliant salmon color, outside in the pond, and it was the first time I had seen them outside.
We went on to see the eagles, red pandas, the baby elephants. But I was so taken by the flamingoes, I kept coming back to them. And several of those flamingoes held my gaze, made eye contact. That very afternoon, the haiku wrote itself. I would love to see them fly. I don't think I've seen flamingoes fly. So I wonder: do the flamingoes at the zoo fly?
I like flamingoes. I like pink, and flamingos are pink. It's just a personal taste. And they have a great shape—a long neck. I don't think I've ever seen a flamingo in real life. But I did some research and found out what they look like when they're sleeping, which I thought was interesting. They put their heads in their feathers. So I tried to get that into some of the illustrations. But basically I just started drawing flamingoes and seeing what happened. Then I chose the ones I liked best and started arranging them.
I like to do diagonals receding back into space. I was actually striving for it to be simpler: graphic shapes, solid colors. But I got absorbed by the textures. I like the way the pink is working, and I like, overall, the way their necks curve—the curving S shapes.