To my surprise the proof of Taking Tanka Home arrived by Fed Ex on Thursday afternoon. I would not have had to send poor Werner off to the post office the day before if I had known how they were sending the book. This meant that Friday morning was given to proofing and correcting a few minor space problems. The biggest change was on the cover. I felt the black font on the title was wrong, so I changed it to white. I feel it helps to pull together the white on the left and jumps out to the eye more than the black. It is amazing how one can visualize things, think about them, create them in a computer and yet when they manifest the message they carry can be very different.

Hoping this looks as good in the real as it does on the computer I went ahead and ordered the books. I just felt I could not give another ten days to a proof. More nail-biting.

Oh the two things I had worried about for this proofing came out okay. On the computer screen the ISBN barcode and some of the kanji looked a bit fuzzy but in the paper book they were fine. It was the things I thought were okay that hit me behind the knees. Life?

to wander

in a flowering meadow

no stem is bent

by the leisure of a mind

enjoying a photograph