Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2010SYR04
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
Clinton Square Fountain
poster information
Description
Clinton Square fountain
soaks me intermittently.
You carry my shoes.
I wrote this haiku after a hazy, humid Syracuse night. My wife and I were feeling stuffy and claustrophobic, so we threw some beach towels into the car and drove downtown. We weren't the only one who had the idea to jump in the fountain on that night. Whole families were out together, laughing and splashing. Kids were riding their bikes through the water, kicking up sheets of water on the other revelers.
I loved standing where the water came up, feeling it higher and higher on my back, cooling me off. It was one of the most romantic nights of our then brand-new marriage, and I'm excited to have a poster of it!
Clinton Square was one of the first places I saw in Syracuse—orientation took us there back when I was a freshman. I was struck by the beauty of the fountain, and the older, almost Romanesque buildings that surround it. It's a real treat to enter a new place and find yourself surrounded by American history.
The haiku's image of the narrator getting soaked by the fountain while a viewer stands idly made me think of someone dancing. I wanted to illustrate a scene from a more successful time in Syracuse's history—perhaps inspired by those beautiful buildings—and portraying the Gibson girl seemed pertinent. I think she adds a level of elegance to the piece.