MAY 18, more couples' photos

mute swans 

ring-billed gulls

alligators (juveniles)

lionfish

sculpture at the Matsumoto City Art Gallery

TODAY'S HAIKU POEM

laughing gulls

dour laughing gulls judge

Homo sapiens unwise, 

like awks and dodos.

Giorgio Coniglio

MAY 17: Lowcountry miscellany

 S

Ken Burns, documentary film-maker
 at a press conference (public invited)
on his imminent release "The American Revolution"

a local shrimp-boat captain;

       recently installed lifelike replica 

a liquor-store giraffe

rental kayaks at rest

cool oldster at a public dance,
Marine Park, Mt Pleasant
 (under the Cooper River Bridge)

a loaded cargo ship proceeds up the darkening Cooper River.

a majestic great egret

TODAY'S HAIKU POEM # 1

Barber's "Adagio" --

string orchestra or quartet

courts the infinite.

Giorgio Coniglio

TODAY'S HAIKU POEM #2

a remote visit

phone-call from Chania:

our peripatetic son

works, plays and prospers.

Giorgio Coniglio

You can find an illustrated 10-line poem about the town of Chania, Crete, in a blogpost on May 26, 2021.

MAY 16, haiku about our snowbird nest

 

SNOWBIRD-NEST HAIKU #1

hidden pipes, rotting,

joined to copper stubs at sinks --

a potential mess!

Giorgio Coniglio

SNOWBIRD-NEST HAIKU #2

Giorgio Coniglio

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #3

Giorgio Coniglio

MAY 15, rainy days

 

MAY 14: five up-to-date haiku

HAIKU POEM #1

sadly, seated near stage:

a new chamber-music fan,

her phone unsilenced.

Giorgio Coniglio

 

HAIKU POEM  #2

pointless gluttony:

robotic vacuum, laces first,

devours favorite shoe.

Giorgio Coniglio

HAIKU POEM #3

undocumented

fire ants should be deported

to El Salvador.

Giorgio Coniglio

HAIKU POEM #4

trans-Pacific flight --

faced with prospect, I upgrade

my airline ticket.

Giorgio Coniglio

HAIKU POEM #5

my pocket device

at the propitious moment

captures golden rays.

Giorgio Coniglio

MAY 13: a snowy egret's fishing tale

To view the brief videos, click on the red central arrow, then instantly on the thin silver arrow at the upper left of each picture box.

 

am I dreaming?

TODAY'S HAIKU POEM

aspirations fade --

catching the world's biggest fish

Why should I struggle?

Giorgio Coniglio

MAY 12: six illustrated reptilian haiku from the Lowcountry

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #1

choosing limblessness,

snakes and some legless lizards

prefer to slither.

Giorgio Coniglio

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #2

discarded rubber 

tire-tread near a Southern pond --

Oops! alligator!

Giorgio Coniglio

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #3

a brave anole,

patrolling the boundary

displays his dewlap.

Giorgio Coniglio

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #4

wise parental geese

advise single-file travel

on gatory ponds.

Giorgio Coniglio

TODAY's HAIKU POEM #5

five-lined (blue-tailed) skink --

an intelligent lizard

who writes limericks.

Giorgio Coniglio

Readers might enjoy a story told in illustrated verse, dated November 24, 2022, entitled "skink-busting".

LOWCOUNTRY HAIKU #6 

seeking salty warmth,

US crocs, unlike gators,

stick to south FL.

Giorgio Coniglio

MAY 11: inscrutable signs of Japan

 

the Japanese inverted triangle stop sign

Such non-universal traffic signs (recently some display English translation) among others, have been in place since 1963. Inspired by increasing international tourism, including Olympic games, the National Police Agency slated the stop-signs for replacement by a bilingual version of the universal octagonal red sign; the total cost nationally was estimated at 25 billion yen, or 200 million US$.

remember to flip your card!

 for disposing of used food-wrappers from lunch
at an upscale Nagoya lunch self-serve

archaic font for an ultra-modern bus

It was inevitable that high-tech toilets with a bidet function, found very widely in modern Japan, would come up for discussion. The operation and instructions vary from model to model, but are always imposing. Here, the customer seems to be advised to not wash while his/her lamplight (?) is turned on.

CLASSIC JAPANESE HAIKU, in translation

everything I touch

with tenderness, alas,

pricks like a bramble.

Kobayashi Issa

TODAY's HAIKU POEM 

hearing crabs scurry,

a perched old grackle cries out  

as I reach the marsh.

Giorgio Coniglio. 

MAY 10: True-and-Faux Photos: couples' portraits, in progress

Avid readers can find specific instances of couples' portraits on this blog. On our related blog, "Edifying Nonsense", they can find five lengthier posts, each accumulating eight to ten of these displays from our folio. There are now close to 50 of these demonstrations of close relationships in the animal world, reflecting those in the human realm. Start with the post of Febrary 10, 2021, that also discusses the pandemic-era initiative that instituted this effort!

American flamingos

Japanese red deer

white-faced capuchin monkeys

golden koi

mute swans 

ring-billed gulls

alligators (juveniles)

lionfish

sculpture at the Matsumoto City Art Gallery

TODAY'S HAIKU POEM

laughing gulls

dour laughing gulls judge

Homo sapiens unwise, 

like awks and dodos.

Giorgio Coniglio