Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2010SYR06
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
Canal Over Creek
poster information
Description
Canal over creek.
Yearning for one another.
Waters never blend.
When I searched for haiku inspiration, I thought of a place unique to Central New York. Earlier, my boyfriend showed me the canal park near Camillus, where a viaduct carries the Erie Canal over Nine Mile Creek. The place is beautiful and feels very rural, though it is just outside Syracuse. You can barely tell a highway is nearby. The place has many of the natural elements associated with haiku, and it is a gorgeous area.
In addition to the natural beauty of the place, there is a sadness. If you think about it: the canal is flowing toward the creek and the creek toward the canal. You are ready for the two waters to meet and become one. Instead, they are carried separately, one over the other, so very close, but forever apart.
Before I entered the haiku in the contest, I read it to my boyfriend for his input and comments. He replied, “It's beautiful, I like it, but it fills me with sadness.”
I was born in Vietnam, in a small village near Saigon, so there was a lot of nature around. I love nature. So I chose a poem related to nature.
I've lived in Syracuse for 16 or 17 years, but I've never liked snow, so I tried not to pick any poems related to snow. I saw one that said, “Snow piles high and soft / Wind blows the sun through my bones / Syracuse weather.” Oh my God! Wow! That was not the one for me!
I like spring, autumn and maybe summer, and I always seek out the beauties of those seasons. For example, the sky, when it has colors you don't normally see. Or trees. I'm a fan of trees, but summer trees, with their leaves, not winter trees. Like clouds, trees can have almost any shape. When you look at them, you can see images, shapes, even weird faces.