Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2019SYR05
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
Hurled From Their Branches
poster information
Description
Hurled from their branches
Golden leaves swirl everywhere
Onondaga wind
It was the fall of 2015, and I was walking with my beloved dog, Nikita, who passed away at the end of November 2018. As we meandered along Onondaga Creek, bordering the center of Syracuse, she sniffed assiduously at various animals' scents, learning all about the creatures who had been burrowing, running, or grazing there. It was a dramatic day; each new gust of wind, golden leaves completely surrounded us. We went back so I could get ready for meditation, and I quickly jotted these words down.
Haiku often come to me while walking outdoors. Over the years, the basic principles of haiku-writing, numbers of syllables per line, season words, sharpness of encounter, each line's integrity, have become second nature to me. I find joy in adhering to the discipline and experiencing the freedom within the form.
I've lived my entire life in CNY and I was drawn to this beautifully simple poem because it was so visual on its own. It got me thinking, of the hundreds of thousands of leaves that populate a single Central New York maple tree each year, one is unknowingly going to be the “last leaf.” The one that will survive the frigid nights and the scorching days, the torrential thunderstorms and the surprising sleet. As the days shift through summer into autumn and even early winter, its companions will drift to the ground. Finally leaving one leaf left to linger until it can be coaxed to the ground by its eternal dance partner, the Onondaga wind. Then, we do it all over again.