Nick’s Wall Mural: The Design and The Poetry

The Idea

Soon I’ll get to share with you guys the exciting reveal of my husband Nick’s office. But I really think the wall mural that features so prominently in that bad boy deserves its own shoutout. First I’ll take you through the process and then I’ll delve into the poetry that Nick chose and explain why it made the wall.

So here’s how it went down:

One of the very first ideas I thought of when I started formulating a plan for the room was to somehow put quotes or excerpts on the wall (Where my dream/laugh/ love people at? You know what I’m talking about!). Nick is a poet. (Yes, that’s still an actual thing.) And he is dorikily obsessed with language. It’s actually romantic and profound and reminds me of why I originally tricked him into hanging out with me. Or whatever. When I came across this photo in my Pinterest research one day, I had it!

I said, “Ima have somebody tag some poetry on the wall!” Nick loved the idea (nailed it) and so I reached out to our buddy Dee Hutch, a local tattoo and graffiti artist, designer and super nice guy who owns a shop in our downtown called Black Hand Tattoo. Check him out on Facebook and Instagram.

I ran the idea by him and he was game. It’s always encouraging to work with other creatives who are fearless and weird and want to try new things. Sure. Technically, I vandalized my own 100 year old house on a whim. But I mean yolo unless reincarnation is real.

With the team assembled, the next step was for Nick to curate lines that were important to him. He took it very seriously. It took him days. Wall real estate was limited, so he had to be selective. He combed through all his favorite works and thought about who he wanted represented because that’s symbolic too.

Once painting day had arrived, Nick and Dee strategized a bit. Nick explained many of the pieces, emphasizing which specific words held power, etc. And then Dee basically took that info and interpreted it. It was pretty great to watch, seeing planning and artistic choices come together.

He used a combination of spray paint, paint markers and an airbrushing. Early on, the spray paint dripped more than expected because of the formula but we agreed it was a happy accident. In the end, I was thrilled and proud to be a part of a really weird experiment. Poetry meets graffiti meets interior design. Why the hell not? Here’s a look at the process.

The process

One last look:

I can’t wait to show you guys the way I was able to use this inspiring backdrop to craft a space that is cool and serious, young and sophisticated.

And now…

The poetry

Because this whole project hinged on the deeply personal words that Nick hand-picked for his space, I think it could be worthwhile to give you a quick little snippet about each line and why it was deemed meaningful enough to go on the wall. I’ve linked most of the lines to the complete poems for your reading pleasure. Or displeasure.

I’ll try to keep it short and painless but it’s still poetry, ya’ll. I should also give a disclaimer that these are incomplete interpretations and will also be shamefully oversimplified. I don’t want beef with any poets… ruthless bunch.

This could be fun. See if you can find each line on the mural. How does its placement, size or lettering play into its message?

Let’s go.

or does it explode?” from harlem- langston hughes

Most people who can’t name a single poem can name Langston Hughes. This is the final line of his famous poem, “Harlem”, that ponders the question in the first line… “what happens to a dream deferred?” In short, Nick likes this line as a reminder that suppressing the most beautiful things about ourselves (like our dreams) can become destructive.

“[….that He may raise] the Lord throws down” from Hymn to god, my god, in my sickness- john donne

A broad and concise interpretation of Donne’s death bed poem is about how an ending can serve as a beginning. Nick’s sees this as a lesson in perspective.

“But oh it must be burnt” from the holy sonnets- john donne

Homeboy made it on here twice. Here, Donne is referring to his own soul. He is passionately looking towards a time when the impurities of the world will be burnt away after his death, a reminder that the human spirit survives everything.

“come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed” from won’t you celebrate with me- lucille clifton

Nick explains the power of this line like this: “It’s easy to be overwhelmed by our own vulnerability to a world that often seems hostile (to varying degrees for different people). This poem seeks to protect hope and optimism and celebrates the triumph that is mere daily survival.”

“Beloved, I am so glad you are happy to see me! Beloved, I am so glad, so very glad you have come!” from I am so glad by hafiz, rendered by daniel ladinski

Nick feels this line celebrates the holy in the mundane… For all the passion from the speaker here, he is greeting a dog.

 “cuando la sangre corra no preguntes si es tu sangre” from Poema por poema by juan filipe herrera (former us poet laureate)

The above poem is for the nine people fatally shot in the Charleston church shooting. The line loosely translates to “when the blood runs, do not ask if it is your blood”. Nick feels that this sentiment speaks to our interconnectedness and our responsibility towards each other. Later in the piece, Herrera asserts that (and I’m very much paraphrasing but hopefully not butchering) “poem by poem we will heal the world. You have a poem in you. Your poem is made of action.”

ex-judge at the bar by melvin b. tolson

This is Nick’s favorite poem on the concept of justice. The line, in short, is a description of Justice personified laughing at a man who used to be a judge after he describes how he followed the letter of laws (during the Jim Crow era) as a means to justice itself. It illustrates the idea that laws and true justice have been and still often are at odds.

“…brightness that was itself a golden darkness, brightness so bright that it was darkness” from the ballad of nat turner by robert hayden

(Yikes. It’s really hard to tastefully transition between my characteristic foolishness into the heavy subject matters these poems are wrestling with. So you may have noticed that I’m not trying.)

Nat Turner led the most famous slave rebellion in US history. This poem is about a moment in his life when he escaped slavery and had a revelation in the woods and willfully decided to go back in order to plan and execute the rebellion rather than to continue on to freedom. Nick chose this line from one of his all time favorite poems because he feels it “brilliantly pushes the boundaries of perception and description”. Like many of the other poems that made the wall, this line is about a revelation and the knowledge of self. Brightness and darkness become indistinguishable and it’s in this moment that Nat accepts his own destiny.

“And am I less to You, my God, than they?” from ice storm by robert hayden

Another one who made the wall twice. Nick gave me a long and wordy close reading of this one and you guys. I. fell. Asleep. Like, I actually fell into a slumber. But this is what I got: A guy is watching big old growth trees out of his window after an Ice storm has weighed them down. Some of the limbs are snapping under their own heaviness and they lose parts of themselves. This line is a rhetorical question to God that’s basically the speaker promising that even when his faith is shaken in the storms to come, he knows he will survive and be stronger for it. Or maybe I dreamed that. 🙂

 “I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out was a squirrel monkey” from taint of race by kelsey marie harris (I feel like I need to warn you. um…I’m linking to this incredibly foul poem but read at your own risk. Seriousy… if anybody catches the vapors over this, I don’t want to hear it. You’ve been warned (mom!) The journal is called horrorsleazetrash if that helps.)

Kelsey is a friend and this goofy little line is a bit of levity in what I’m sure we can all agree has shaped up to be quite a heavy and intense wall, thus far. Nick likes a good curveball and a moment that just makes you laugh.

Okay, I didn’t write these last ones. Ima be honest. At this point I just handed the laptop to Nick. He wrote the rest of these because a non-poet can only poetry so much. Jesus.

“Is it ok to live inside this percussion grenade?” from percussion grEnade by joyelle mcsweeney

This poem is a wild sonic experience which simulates, in some ways, the assault it feels like to simply be conscious in the world.  McSweeney does amazing, confounding things with language throughout the poem (and book by the same title), as exemplified here by the very phrase “percussion grenade” (which is not a real thing, but a play on “concussion grenade”.) Nick likes the line (lol, 3rd person because we’re fake) because it gets to a question we all ask ourselves… how can I make it as okay as possible to live in what often feels like chaos?

“….rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!” From the fish by elizabeth Bishop

This line comes from a moment in the poem where, like in the Nat Turner poem above, a revelation overcomes someone who has just caught a huge and ancient fish. When they realize the fish has several other hooks sticking from its mouth, and they start reflecting on what it must’ve survived (what we all have to survive). Everything seems to turn a revelatory kind of beautiful, including the oil around the boat’s engine which creates the rainbow that everything else kind of melts into.  Another poem, to some degree, about the indomitable spirit. In the final line she lets the fish go.

 “A fist is a hand that has made decisions” from the southpaw by afaa michael weaver

Okay, its me again real quick. This is my personal favorite line of the picks. Also, by one of the coolest and nicest dudes ever, even though he’s a poetry big shot. (Look it up, its a real thing.) We hosted Afaa once for a poetry series that Nick runs and at dinner afterwords he humored me and talked about The Wire with me for like an hour. He’s from Baltimore and knew a lot of the people the characters are based off of and I’m obsessed with that show because I have eyes and ears. For context, most of our poetry dinner guests “don’t watch TV”. #wellrounded

This subtle starting line of the poem is ambiguous enough to sound menacing, but not necessarily pass judgment, whether on the fist, the decisions, or the human being associated with the two (which the line artfully omits from itself all together). Nick loves the line’s quality of being vague yet still threatening enough to let the reader know the subject is serious.

 “There is some shit I will not eat” from i sing of olaf glad and big by e.e. cummings

Maybe the obvious joy of this line is that it suggests the speaker will indeed eat most shit.  True for so many of us, yes?  The poem is about a conscientious objector, though, and this line is what he utters as military officers and privates try to bludgeon him into a kind of war-embracing patriotism.  The line speaks beautifully to how, even in a world where so many sacrifices of character may occur or so many compromises may be made, even in our most defeated moments there are some compromises we’d rather die than make.

And with that, I leave you… forever changed? Seriously, if you made it through, thanks! I hope you found some of it interesting.

I should be wrapping up the office design within the next few weeks and I can’t wait to show you guys the results. This wall went a long way in personalizing a space where my favorite person will sit and try his hardest to live up to all the greatest ideals that inspire him.

I can only hope I’ve inspired some of you to step out a little and embrace what inspires you too!