Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2004SYR14
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
Corner Vendor Shouts
poster information
Description
Corner vendor shouts
Flowers! Flowers! Flowers! Makes
City women smile
I didn't want to write poems that just had a certain number of syllables. I really wanted to get into the spirit of haiku. And I think, in large part, that spirit has to do with the meeting of civilization and nature—man and nature.
So this poem has to do with a proverb I like, that says, “If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one to buy hyacinths to feed my soul.”
Cities are places of commerce. And there's something missing in all the asphalt and the horns blaring. We lose touch with nature. When I'm hustling and bustling, I see it in my mind's eye—that's the corner where the flower vendor should be. I need some flowers right now.
I wanted to paint something with a lot of color and personality for this haiku. I usually see Syracuse as it is most of the winter—dark and gloomy. But I really like it when we get back in the fall, and there's still roses in the rose garden, and people out.
I've been downtown and seen a vendor like the one in the poem. A woman with a huge bundle of flowers and teddy bears. She usually tries to get the men buy flowers for their women, and it probably would make them smile. It gives you a feeling of being in the city, being around groups of different people, interacting with city life. I like being downtown here. There's always something going on.