When Your Poetry Lines Migrate to Your Sketchbook

Yesterday, I returned to the lines I had written earlier in the day:

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.  

In this temple of white whiskers and old bones,
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.