Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2016SYR13
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
Steely Blue Serpent
poster information
Description
Steely blue serpent
Emerges from soft green grass—
The snake charmer sits
Both of my sons, Patrick and Alexander, love the serpent statue on Fayette Street and frequently ask to stop there to play. I wrote the poem while watching Alexander play on the statue in the summer of 2013. In one particular moment, he was sitting on the statue itself while completely engrossed in an imaginary world.
Aside from being a retelling of a fairly mundane but particularly happy memory, I enjoyed the richness of the contrasts I saw: hard blue metal and soft green grass, the mix of the man-made and the natural (which is an important characteristic of the city of Syracuse), and you can almost see the movement of the serpent despite its static appearance. Is the serpent only momentarily still, subdued by my son? Or, rather, has Alexander's imagination stopped time itself?
I discovered the snake my freshman year. I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world, especially because of the design. It was like this angular, mechanical monster-esque thing, but it also has these big friendly eyes. It's been my favorite Syracuse landmark ever since.
I'm from New York City, but this past summer, I spent it in Syracuse. I spent a lot of time downtown, and, when we had the chance, we would play music by the serpent, Walt. My girlfriend would play guitar and I would play ukulele. It's a great place to be visible to people, to share music with them. The best part, even if people didn't stop as they passed by, they would sure enough be smiling. It's a scene you don't see a lot in Syracuse, people playing on the streets. Especially playing in front of, like, a goofy-looking serpent.