Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2005SYR12
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
Stop, Unload and Load
poster information
Description
Stop, unload and load
A deli on the corner
Salina Street bus
I don't get to downtown Syracuse often, so I thought I should spend some time watching, before I wrote anything. I started at the library in the Galleries, then I went out onto Salina Street. Eventually I noticed a busy bus stop in front of a deli. People were getting on or off, greeting each other. Some went into the deli.
When I write haiku, I like to bring two images together that might appear unrelated to each other; like the busy bus and the deli. Sometimes the images blend, sometimes they collide. This haiku was more like a fender bender.
I'm from the upper east side of Manhattan. When I first came to Syracuse, I remember being unable to sleep for the first couple of months because it was so silent. It was a tremendous culture shock.
So the thing that attracted me to the poem most was its urban appeal. When I got the assignment, I spent the whole day just walking around taking pictures. That's something very close to home for me because in Manhattan you walk everywhere.
Also, when I read the poem I knew exactly what corner the poet was referring to. It's like a straight up city corner—pretty grimy, but I like that. Something about that is very real to me.