Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2012SYR06
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
Before brick-laid streets
poster information
Description
Before brick—laid streets
Before hand—dug waterways
This was good swampland
This is not the most creative haiku; it is more of a statement. Sometimes I write short poems that are actually sentences or paragraphs, and then I arrange them to look like a poem. Poem forms. The Syracuse Poster Project has inspired me to continue writing more and the haiku is a tricky, but enjoyable challenge. In the future, I hope to be able to publicly read my poetry and want to get involved with the downtown writers workshop on Montgomery Street, to continue learning more.
When first asked to select a haiku for this project I did not look at the poets' names as I wanted to choose based solely on the meaning of the haiku. After a preliminary review, this haiku was last on my list for one simple reason; I did not understand why it seemed so negative.
When it became difficult to select one haiku I decided to look at the writers' names only to realize that this seemingly negative haiku was written by the Native American stone carver Tom Huff. It was then that I realized it was meant in a very different and positive way and I immediately envisioned beautiful swampland in the foreground with Syracuse receding into the image.