Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2017SYR03
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
Quick Pivot, Braid Flies
poster information
Description
Quick pivot, braid flies
Red tailed hawk circles the field
As Iroquois score
Lacrosse is an exciting, fast-paced game, so I wanted to portray that in the first line.
I used the red tailed hawk in the second line because it symbolizes courage, agility and strength. It is also known as a protector. I liked the idea of the hawk circling above and watching the Iroquois play well on the field.
Last year I watched a documentary about lacrosse and that got me thinking of games I have watched, so naturally I wanted to write a haiku about it!
I am a Mohawk. I was raised about three hours north of Syracuse, in Akwesasne. So, as an indigenous person, there is a lot of imagery in this haiku that spoke out to me. In our history, when lacrosse was given to us, it was the Creator's game. You play it to praise him. It keeps you healthy, it keeps the people's spirits up, and those who are unable, the elderly, the disabled and the young. The game is medicine and it feeds the spirit of our community at large.
Initially I wanted to go back to the old days, when there would be hundreds of players on the field at once. Then I wanted to make a tribute to my father, Brandon David, and the age of '90s lacrosse. But I felt it would be more powerful to do a modern-day version. This piece has tributes to my father, my sister, and the nationally known Thompson brothers.