Poster Image

A saxophonist plays in the middle of an urban street at nighttime

$20

Item#: 2014SYR11

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

Lonely Concrete World

poster information

Description

Lonely concrete world
Sad note from a saxophone
Night in the city

I have been a writer for most of my life. Writing and being in nature are both vital to my soul life. I live in the country, surrounded by forests and waterfalls, and when I am alone here, there is a sense of deep peace, profound stillness, and a connectedness to all that is. There is never loneliness. It's different in the city. I was in Armory Square late one night, and out of the darkness came the sound of a saxophone, playing its lone music to a deserted street, piercing the silence—the kind of silence that bespoke loneliness. I wanted to capture, in my haiku, the loneliness that is felt when we expect people to be present, as opposed to the peaceful solitude we feel in nature.

During my four years here, I have really enjoyed living in Syracuse, in the city especially. I'm from Buffalo, NY, and there's a visual aesthetic that connects the two cities—something in the layout, the architecture, the color—even the street names are similar. So I found it familiar when I first visited, probably in high school, and since then I've gotten to explore the region. I always go downtown. I go to The Galleries and the Central library at least once a week (I love books). That's why I chose that area to illustrate, around Jefferson and Warren streets. It strikes a chord with me, yet it's still unique to this city. It's not Armory Square, or Tipp Hill, it's not campus. It's a place that can't quite be named. It's not seen in brochures or on the news, but there's something about it that's distinctly Syracuse.