Day 94 (CS Day 17) - Insect Tanka

"It's National Poetry Month! Write a poem or make something inspired by a poem you like"

I decided to create tanka, a classical Japanese poetry style similar to haiku in that you have a set number of syllables per line. Tanka are 5-7-5-7-7 and often depend on puns and double entendres for meaning (I have no such skill). They were frequently introduced with a bit of prose describing the feeling, thoughts, mood, scenery, or any other bit of information about why or when it was composed, that gave further depth and context to the short poems.

When a friend asked me to name a favorite insect I replied:

The tiger beetle

Mantispids are another

Mantids, can't deny

My favorite's hard to pin

Can't even choose an Order!

On discovering my beloved mantids belonged with vile roaches on the cladogram:

Preying mantids may

evolutionarily

be predatory

elongated cockroaches,

I pray not show revulsion

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The Heian Book Report

I've started re-reading my Heian-era Japanese Literature books (all English translations) and thought I'd write a few thoughts about each while it's fresh in my mind. I started with Hojoki and Tsurezuregusa . So, this is just my announcement, you can read a bit more about my Heian Obsession here and I will post all of the book reports to this page .

Day 6 - Lizard

The drawing of this lizard was interrupted by errands today but luckily I remembered to come back to it. The hubs walked in while I was working on it and said " ugh " (and actually flicked out his tongue much like a lizard)...which I suppose means that it looks real enough ;) ~January 6, 2022~ The Gallery for this Draw Something ( anything! ) Daily Challenge can be seen HERE

Day 8 - Master Works

Day 8 Recreate or interpret a work of art you admire. This is based on a famous panel of the Choju Giga scroll (Animal Caricatures or Scrolls of Frolicking Animals) which was created sometime in the late 12th century in Japan. Similar to the original's ink on paper, mine was rendered in India ink and red acrylic ink on Bristol paper. I've replaced the rabbit with a click beetle trying to right itself, and the frogs were replaced with mantids (feeling ill today and my hand started cramping after I drew the beetle. The mantids aren't as well done as I would like. I may redo this sometime because I think it came out cute otherwise). The top "seal" in red says sumimasen , which is Japanese for excuse me! and the lower one is my name in Japanese. This was fun to make, but sketching with a brush is a lot harder than it looks, and no erasing! The Choju Giga artist was truly a master, I very much admire the brush work in the original. Here is the o...

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