NPR: Haiku Traffic Signs Bring Poetry To NYC Streets

"If you're walking or biking around New York City this weekend you might look up at a busy intersection and see signs like these:

 Traffic warning street signs written as haiku are appearing on poles around the five boroughs, posted by the New York City Department of Transportation. The poems and accompanying artwork were created by artist John Morse. ..." 

Read more at npr.org >>

Haikai no Renga Birthday Poetry Party

We celebrated Harvey's birthday last weekend. The usual rituals involving food, drink, cake (referred to as Ken's hard tack), presents and party games were observed: sushi, sake and two rounds of Haikai no Renga. Most often simply called renga, it is collaborative poetry that was developed in 8th century Japan. Each verse is composed by a different author and links to the verse preceding and following it. Typically,

"A renga consists of at least two ku or stanzas, usually many more. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku, became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry. ... "

-- Wikpedia

For our renga game, two clipboards were passed around the party. Guests were asked to initial their verses. The opening hokku were written by Harvey, our guest of honor. When a page or two was filled with poetry, we transcribed the verses:

Imperfections in our game design emerged as we played.

1. We need a key to friends' initials. Some artistic flourishes were a challenge.
2. Not everyone initialed their stanzas.
3. Some of the stanzas were not transcribed during the party. We realized this when we read the poems again the next day. 

What follows are the full poems. Poet's initials are in parentheses.

Haikai no Renga #1

White birds flying high
whispers from the southern wind
life beyond the fence (H2)

Grace notes; a gift from the sky
Pure white droplets from above

lights bright from above
the streets don't sleep anymore
just rain sometimes veils

Sleeping -- sleeping -- I can't sleep
It's 3 a.m. I'm awake (JG)

There is knocking now,
There are Mormons at the door
tell them we're Catholic! (EC)

Heathens! How they waste our time.
Let's all dance a Conga line! (KB)

The line forms right here --
Yes, time flies like an arrow
Fruit flies? Banana. (ES)

John Gabier his arrow aims
He tries to impress the dames (AS)

Weary of notice
women retire to bathe
combing long black hair (LD)

Crouched in the reeds, the watchers
admire the view, pant, pant, drool

Voyeurs dislike me
I foil their devious plans
I watch the watchers (EC)

Upon the high watch towers
Hidden by the purple mist (KB)

Mist obscures vision
Stupid room keeps spinning 'round
Too much to drink. *THUD* (ES)

morning reveals its grayness
anxious cat demands breakfast (HH)

Gauze filmed eyes, "Meow Meow"
How do you like your eggs ... "Meow"
Honey! Cats don't eat eggs! (TM)

Fur and feathers teeth and tails
Those who take care of our souls (DBG)

Just add some sweet rice
Then rolled just so carefully
Slice it and enjoy (GAB)

Consume not food alone
Wash it down with hot sake (LD)

Minds hot with shared joy
Faces flushed with sillyness
Life, horns and laughter

Hard tack from our good friend Ken
Another fun form of Zen (AS)

Zat was Zen, zhis is ...
Tao? Alchemical magic
Created by ... cake. (ES)

Ginger, flour and butter
Sweet chocolate crust like springtime (DL)

So tender inside
melts in your mouth with sweetness
another year born

Settling in between teeth
Sweetness becomes sinister.

Haikai no Renga #2

Tea in one small room
A bigger room for sake
Our house ruled by cat

Our feline overlord purrs
Licks whiskers, thinks of raw fish (DL)

In a springtime pond
Koi swim below cherry trees
Eat fallen blossoms (LD)

Garden pond 'neath grass is sunk
convenient when Harvey's dunk'd. (AS)

Harvey is old now
Friends gather 'round to observe
Drown him in sake. (ES)

As Ophelia in state
At night's end Sensei post drink (TM)

The sun rises now
Night is gone, so is Harvey
Why is the wine gone? (DL)

Dawn is near the body renews
And, now it is time for wine (DAP)

Oh sweet wine sublime
summer kiss in crimson skin
dead grape releasing (SW)

Shake those bones rock rattle roll
Pirates sing up on the knoll (SW)

Wait for the up roll
the song of the battle rattle
heave her out -- give fire

Cannon crews all point and laugh
Bad ship sinks, break out the rum!

A rum cove, he is
Let's give him the old heave ho
Wheee! Sploosh! That was fun. (ES)

Cake cake cake cake cake cake cake
Really, what else do we need (DBG)

We need the sweetness
We want the glory of chocolate
Glory to sweet Ken

Boatbuilder's hard tack -- so sweet
and soft! Greater E-vil weevil. (DL)

Just a bit evil
just a wee bit, I promise
That smile and those horns

Can we stop the cake stuff now?
What's important is the booze! (ES)

Harvest Moon

Twilight dragonfly
Autumn sun sinks, moon rises
Mist on the bottoms

Autumn Foliage

Thousands of leaves fall

Peppering lawn and walkway

Never enough words

Picklefest 2011

Recent pickling exploits lead to an abundance of, well, pickles.

Honeyed Sunshine Pickles (redubbed Liquid Sunshine)

Spicy Dill Spears

So we invited over some friends and we all shared pickles -- bread and butters, relishes, dill spears, dilly beans, sweet gherkins, pickled eggs, preserved bamboo shoots. We also indulged in a variety of other fermented and leavened products. We were well and properly pickled by the end of the afternoon.

Autumn

Lonely cricket sings
Sunset darkens trees and sky
Folding yukata

Picklemania!

It's pickle season here at the Harvey House. Jars and jars of fresh pickles! Here are the Dilly Green Beans and Bread and Butter Zucchini Chips. Not pictured are the Dill Spears, Sweet Gherkins and "Honeyed Sunshine Pickles," a sweet-and-savory cucumber chip. Can't wait to do more dilly beans later this week.

Got crossbills?

A notice posted on our local birding list tickled my interest:

"Got crossbills? If not, we can share! For the past few weeks we've had continuous numbers of Red Crossbills visiting our sunflower seed feeders. They are present all day and readily seen.... We estimate approximately 20-30 birds."

I informed my ever-patient non-birder husband that we'd be going to see the birds after work on Friday.

We drove to the specified address where the birds were indeed easily seen busying themselves at the feeder in the company of American and lesser goldfinches, house finches and evening grosbeaks. The poster/resident saw us peering with binoculars from the other side of his fence and generously invited us into his yard to get a good look. The birds were relatively unconcerned with us standing only a few feet away just beneath their feeder, and we got great views of several juveniles, females and brick-colored males.

Happy Summer!

I couldn't resist posting this cute little summer solstice Google doodle by Takashi Murakami

 

Japanese artist's cartoon The First Day of Summer celebrates the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere

Flower in my driveway

Flower in the crannied wall

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson  (1809–1892)

Habit

I'm in a hurry --
I think, "I won't wash the rice."
Then I wash the rice.

Nesting Jays

Steller's jays have finally discovered our yard! Our birch trees to be exact. A pair cruised by this morning, one had a beakfull of nesting material gathered from our birch trees -- just the tender tips of the branches. It looked like tassels when it shook its head.

April Fooled

My coworkers fooled me while I was at lunch today. Brilliant!

Ohanami!

A hypnotic pink froth entrances young and old, 

Lures us into parks and down tree-lined allées, 

Invites us to pause in the shower of delicate petals 

And drink our fill of spring.

Kyoto, Japan

Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Sakura to go, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Celebrating the Buddha's birth, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Sankei-en, Yokohama, Japan

Salted cherry blossoms

Wagashi shaped like a cherry blossom

Sakura mochi, Kyoto-style

More photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/105060227937518922873/SakuraMadness#

Goose Flyoff

Laura and I represented Team Vogel Da and the Sirens at this year's Aleutian Goose Flyoff at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. After one video my batteries pooped out.

 For more, see Laura's blog, http://selchiedubh.blogspot.com/2009/03/aleutian-cackling-goose-fly-off_07.html

Shameless Homage, Repurposed Art

No time for art a Friday Night Art Project -- last weekend was our annual floor-to-ceiling Tea room cleanout and I spent Friday night pre-cleaning.

This is an illustration I did for the cover of this week's North Coast Journal (my employer, and so thus repurposed art) illustrating two separate stories concerning Aleutian Canada geese and Chinook salmon. I couldn't pass on the opportunity to do an homage to M.C. Escher's "Birds and Fish" tessellation. The illustrations were traced from photos in Adobe Illustrator, then assembled into the tessellation. Textures and color gradients were added to the final illustration in Photoshop. On newstands now.

Belated Art Project Post

Last week I opened a Zazzle shop and added a couple of my digital images for mini buttons.

zazzle.com/hollix

Not too exciting yet. It's a work in progress.

More ruckus to come when there's more there there.

My Fuzzy Valentine

After a day weeding vegetable beds and pruning bamboo, I needed an easy craft to satisfy the weekend art project. (What is craft but applied art, anyway?) Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Instructions for this project are here:
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/02/how-to_valentine_heart_chain_f.html

Kobukusa for Kristin

I sewed up a quick kobukusa for Kristin's birthday (we use brocade kobukusa in the Japanese tea ceremony). She was tickled by the dragon motif.

Fabric cut and pinned. (My kobukusa is on the right.)

Finished kobukusa.

Recycled Paper

A Friday dinner engagement delayed this week's art project until Saturday. I recycled used kaishi into 4" squares of handmade paper. My friend Judy, visiting from Mendocino, strung beaded necklaces while I made paper. Together we had a very pleasant artsy afternoon.

Kaishi is used when enjoying sweets during the Japanese tea ceremony.
We'll save used papers in the little pot until I have enough to make some more paper.

Little sheets of paper on a sushi mat 'drying rack'

Experiments with flowers and petals

Rainy Day Nikko, Linoleum Print

This print began as a photograph taken of Nikko Kitty as she looked out the window on a rainy day. I turned it into a high-contrast image in Photoshop, then traced it on to the linoleum block. Nikko frequently interrupted the process for ear scratching or to beg a dose of catnip. This final print was done with water-based ink on paper handmade from recycled cotton rag kaishi, paper used for handling sweets during the Japanese tea ceremony.

Final print on handmade paper

Photo with increased contrast, traced on linoleum and ready to carve

Nikko insisting it's time for a break

Finished block

Friday Night Art Project 2011

A year or so ago, I engaged in a weekly poetry project. I posted a poem or poetry related topic on most Fridays for the year. My weekly project is not so specific this year, just do art of some sort once a week. So far, so good.

Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 18-21, 2011

Fellow citizen scientists, it's time to stock up the feeders: The 14th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming soon! GBBC is a joint project of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society:

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds. We'll be adding updated GBBC materials for the next count as they become available. 

Visit the website http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and download the easy-to-follow instructions. Then go wash the windows and get ready to watch some birds.