Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2002SYR06
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
Bikes and Barbecue
poster information
Description
bikes and barbecue
Nutcracker at the Landmark—
a night out downtown
Haiku is one of the few things I write for myself. Everything else I write tends to be journalism—writing as the editor of SUNY Oswego's alumni magazine. So mostly I'm writing for other people and other purposes.
I write haiku while I'm riding in the car. I have a long drive to work. It's through the countryside around Oswego, so I see a lot of nature, and I think about that, or meditate about that. It's a way to relax.
I'm not from Syracuse, so for us to go to downtown Syracuse is usually an occasion. I've been the Landmark to see the Nutcracker with my daughter, and I've been to B.B. King, and concerts like that with my son. It's a special place.
I've been to the Landmark. It's a beautiful building. And I've been to the Dinosaur Barbecue. I actually played softball for the Dinosaur league—filled in for someone last summer. So, having that familiarity, I was just ready to give it a go.
The image wasn't something labored over. I started with the nutcracker, and wanting him to be the figurative element. And then synthesizing that with bikes. And then: “Hey, why not have the Nutcracker on a bike?”
When you drive down Salina Street, and you see lights flashing on the marquis, you know that's the Landmark. So I took that element, placed it in the image, and put the haiku on it. For a whimsical element, I had the Nutcracker barbecuing walnuts.