Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2020SYR12
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 Ghosts of Yester
poster information
Description
The ghosts of yester
Sequestered in their oak grove
Welcome each new dawn.
The inspiration for my haiku was Syracuse's own Oakwood Cemetery. As an amateur photographer, often with my nephew Giovanni and my niece Gabbi, Oakwood has proved to be a perfectly unique area to capture gorgeous architecture, statuary, and nature co-existing in harmony. Recognizing the surnames of famous Syracusans on mausoleums and headstones draws you instantly into the past. I was surprised to learn that the cemetery, with its fashionable landscaping, hosted picnic parties as “the thing to do” in the Victorian Era. Some may view Oakwood as a foreboding, gothic nightmare, but for me it's a beautiful, reflective place that holds the great builders of our dear Syracuse.
I chose this haiku as it invoked a sense of past-meets-present in a hopeful way. Our ancestors (or spirits) of Central New York helped build the rich historical tapestry that we know today. Those illustrated are the Haudenosaunee, Harriet Tubman, Father Simon Le Moyne, and more. They have descendants who live in our community and continue to weave new threads into our region's unique culture.
The piece contains a palette of peaceful blues and highlighting warm yellows to help describe the hopeful notion that a new day brings. The illustration was created by braiding together old and new artistic techniques: hand-drawn pen and ink and digital composition work via Adobe Photoshop.