Sunday

Palms of green and brown

Against a cloud-filled blue sky

Water tickles my toes.

                                                         --  S. Patterson   

In school, I always loved my English classes.  Especially the literature and writing segments of the core curriculum.  Unfortunately, today's English classes have limited the fiction that today's students are required to read.  They read twice as much non-fiction now.  

You may have recognized that the little poem I just wrote about my photo of the beach at Howard Park is in the form of a Haiku.  I lived on Okinawa as a child and fell in love with the Japanese people whom I found fascinating.  I learned to speak a little Japanese and even then appreciated the beauty of the island.  In almost every English class from Junior High on, we had a few days of studying and writing Haiku poems.  The English version of the Haiku is normally 3 lines long in alternating lines of 5-7-5 syllable format.  I love Japanese poetry and art and have several books that combine the two.

The painting above is vintage Japanese art in the Hawaiian Legacy Archive on Fine Art America website.  There is no artist credited.  It is classic Japanese art with ponds and cherry blossoms often major components in paintings.  I have played with Chinese Brush painting but have never attempted Japanese art.  Maybe I need to look into that.  I'll use the library's online search for books and DVDs to see if they have anything on it.  I'll bet they do.

I'll look into it when my schedule permits.