This poem occurred to me in summertime. But it’s also a vision of numerous experiences. I stand at Clinton Square now and feel the same thing. It’s a spiritual presence.
I’m amazed to hear about Frederick Douglass coming to Syracuse to speak about the abolition of slavery. Five thousand people came to hear him. Five thousand! There couldn’t have been much more than that in the whole county. Not in the 1840s.
I just try to write what I feel.
Shadows.
Emptiness echoes
around monuments. A man
remembers shadows.
