Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2010SYR15
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
The Flock of Pigeons
poster information
Description
The flock of pigeons
Boards the westward bound Centro
As the engine purrs
When I was a teenager I worked downtown and spent a lot of time standing by the bakery on the corner waiting for the bus to come. Waiting for the bus is a great time to people watch and imagine things that would be interesting, like an old man breaking into a song and dance number or inanimate objects coming to life.
In 2005 I came back to Syracuse after living out of state, excited to try and capture the hometown I'd missed in a poem. I spent the day walking around downtown, writing about buildings and ghosts and trying to discover secret places I'd never noticed before. I found myself at the corner of the bakery again, waiting for the bus and laughing as I saw a group of pigeons and imagined them reaching for their wallets and boarding the bus. A poem had found its way out.
I chose this poem because when I read it I had an image come to mind right away. I thought the poet was probably thinking of normal birds perched on top, but I liked the image of human-sized pigeons boarding a bus. Once I had the main idea I added smaller details like the Syracuse baseball cap.
The picture isn't meant to show a specific place in Syracuse, but I did take pictures of Syracuse buses for reference. I wouldn't say pigeons remind me especially of Syracuse, but the bus seemed like something people would recognize.