Per Diem Archive: C. H. Day January 2013, Insects
Insects and Arachnids: the humble and splendid creatures that take us by surprise.
Almost every young child is captivated by insects and spiders, those little dramas that go on around us. Then usually by the end of grade school most of us lose interest and these creatures are no longer our playmates. / borrowing my hut / from fleas and mosquitoes / I sleep / (1814) Issa (1763-1827) translated by David G. Lanoue. Issa never lost his fascination with insects. Out of the 10,000 haiku translations by David G. Lanoue uploaded to the Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website, 52 are about fleas. And like Issa the following poets have written about all sorts of insects and spiders. This Per Diem is a chance to rediscover: the click of a deathwatch beetle, the taste of hive in the honey, and the architecture of a just spun web. We again visit with water striders, praying mantises, dragonflies, crickets, and maybe even a lowly flea.
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