Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2015SYR02
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 Streets Don't Run Me
poster information
Description
The streets don't run me,
and I don't run the streets.
I run free of them.
Poetry has always been my savior. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's a way to release my emotions, especially when my depression kicks in. I just grab a pen and piece of paper and start writing things down. When I'm done, I feel better.
When I was in high school, I had straight A's. I was that little geek. But after high school, I suffered from depression and anxiety, and I was hanging out with the wrong people. I got into an addiction. It took me for a whole spin. At the time I wrote my poem, honestly, I was in jail. So sitting in my cell, I just started thinking, how can I express what I've been through in three short sentences.
To think where I was in my addiction, two years ago, to where I am now, it's just unbelievable. It shows that I am a fighter and that I can overcome anything that I put my mind to.
This poem made me think about not letting your circumstances influence how you see yourself, how you carry yourself, or the decisions you make. For the first line, “The streets don't run me,” I wanted to incorporate a map of Syracuse. I found this old streetcar map, which is at the heart of the image. I wanted the man to be a part of the background image, but also separate from it. So I created him partly drawn, fading into a painting. He's a part of Syracuse, but he's also his own person. I liked the shape of the map, and it fit right there, branching out from the heart. The streets look like veins. I'm from Houston, but I've been here in Syracuse for four years. I made the man at the center of the image a person who looked similar to, or had the feeling of, the people I've seen downtown.