I began this project by searching for sites that would complement themes in the poem. After much exploration, I decided on one of the LYNX light rail stations. I began photographing different areas of the station to find a shot that would help set up the composition for the design.

I think the light rail station setting allows a few different readings of the poem.

I first imagined the speaker revisiting locations that remind them of memories with the person they loved. In the fifth stanza, the speaker mentions the airport as being a place of their romantic encounters. Perhaps the speaker is feeling nostalgic, not yet ready to accept the truth and move on—swaddling themselves In the comfort of denial.

Like airports, train stations are also a liminal space denoting change. I think the train station could equally suggest the speaker moving on from these old experiences and departing from the past.

When I began designing, I broke each stanza apart and added to the composition line by line. I interpreted the poem as a nonlinear expression of the speaker’s feelings and realizations rather than a sequential narrative. When processing something difficult like realizing a love experience has only been one-sided, it can often take revisiting these thoughts a few times to fully accept them. To communicate this I repeated several lines in the poem to show that those thoughts are occurring again and again.

The phrases that best encapsulate the poem are in extremely large bold type in contrast to the rest of the poem. I highlighted phrases like “no one” and “inside me” to underscore the emptiness felt by the speaker. I decided to position these two phrases on the glass windows to allude to the speaker reflecting on being alone, realizing these feelings have only been inside them, and being transparent with their emotions.