How I am Coming Along with Art and Developments in Hojoki: A Traditional Japanese Tale Retold for Children

The brook keeps bubbling,
paint barely dried.

Thinking the book should be written
doesn't write the book
but to say it does nothing
is false.

How to paint the roof?
Is it thatched.
Can't return to 1212 Kyoto to see.

Colors like borrowed library books
inform me of something.
Grass Sandals by Dawnine Spivak
I read you with glad newness.

Who am I to write of Japan?
Leather boots know my niece and nephew
house such lineage
but I hold no certificate of rights.

But no books have ever touched me
like Cool Melons Turn to Frogs
and Hojoki
my friends.

Thanks to recent Kickstarter backers! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mugword/year-of-writing-and-illustrating-my-first-children?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=maggie%20hess I am 25% to my goal!!!