In this temple of old bones and white whiskers,
I water the plants and feed the cats.
The work of a prophetess is never done.
I decided I wanted to create a sketch, so I started with part of the first line:
In this temple of old bones
I knew I would also add the last line, so the first thing I sketched was an owl, which was going to be a cat, but when the owl shape came, I went with it. I drew a tree around it.
The image of the Morikami Museum came into my mind, so I tried to sketch it. I also did a search for images, and came up with some of the statues from the garden. I included it too.
I did the initial sketching with a black pen that has a very fine tip. Then I began to add color, first with the owl, then with the temple windows. Here's the finished sketch:
I liked the austerity of the sketch without the color, but I didn't realize that I did before I added the color. In the future, I'll try to remember to take a picture of the pre-color sketch too.
I then returned to the villanelle (more on that form here) and realized I had gotten the rhyme scheme wrong.
I water the plants and feed the cats.
The work of a prophetess is never done.
I saw an easy fix, but I'm not as crazy about it:
In this temple of white whiskers, old bones, and setting sun
I water the plants and feed the cats.The work of a prophetess is never done.
Is the rhythm of the second line off? Let me try this:
In this temple of white whiskers, old bones, and setting sun,
I water the plants, sweep the stone floor, and feed the cats.The work of a prophetess is never done.
This rhythm might be better:
In this temple of white whiskers, old bones, and setting sun,
I water the plants, feed the cats, and sweep the stone floor.The work of a prophetess is never done.
Let me return to this idea later today. Now it's time to head to spin class and the other tasks of the day.
Hooray for you for making this sketch and poem! Im musing about the rhythms. How about #3, but "water the plants, feed the cats, and sweep the stones." Then you'd have "bones," "stones," and "done"...just an idea. More please!
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