Poster Image

A grid of city streets with dozens of snowplows driving on them

$20

Item#: 2019SYR14

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

Armies of Snowplows

poster information

Description

Armies of snowplows
invade snowbound neighborhoods
winter prison break

Growing up in Georgia, I only saw snow twice. In second grade I had pneumonia and watched my friends play outside my window. In my college we left classes and played in the snow. My years in New York have shown me a different appreciation for snow and those who work to keep us safe.

My years as an English teacher have given me an appreciation for haiku. Over the years I have submitted quite a few haiku for consideration.

This year with all the snow I have thought that my poem about snow plows had a chance.

I selected this wonderful haiku by Elizabeth Patton because it had great keywords, which helped trigger my imagination, like “armies, “invade,” and “prison break.” These words brought up a stark contrast between military precision and the chaos of escaping convicts. I chose a nighttime setting with a downward bird's eye view of the grid of city streets below using the complimentary colors of blue and orange. The compositional organization and inspiration came to me in the forms of the classical Golden Mean (or Golden Section) and Piet Mondrian's abstract painting, “Broadway Boogie-Woogie.” Then I created the poster in Adobe Illustrator.