maiji: drinking morning tea

A few weeks ago, back in April, I used the dollar store holo scratch pad again, making another piece to mail to the friend I mentioned in my "Soft sunshine cat" post. Our love of tea is what enabled us to meet in the first place, so I thought this haiku by Matsuo Basho was a perfect fit. I think the scene captured in the poem carries such a gentle and lovely sense of contemplation.  朝茶飲む　僧静かなり　菊の花asacha nomu / sō shizukanari / kiku no hanadrinking morning tea  / quiet monk / chrysanthemum flowersMy handwriting has never been the prettiest, and I really sweated over my attempts at writing the Japanese. Plus knowing that fixing any mistakes after scratching them in would be a tall order! It's always interesting to see how different an idea looks on paper versus in your head.As a comic artist, I find it really easy to picture each line like a panel, a viewer stumbling upon a moment, these little windows to mindful pauses in my mind's eye. It might be fun to tackle this haiku again, illustrating it with that approach.