チャットGPTに書道についての短歌を書いてもらうように頼みます。

AI is the new thing, so one had better get on board.

Furthermore, it's good at composing poetry; it lied to me about a French poem I was trying to remember and, it seems, totally made up a verse, but the verse is in the style of the poet and is good enough that one has to confront, yet again, the questions of authenticity and of what matters. (If a student found that and thought it original...so what? Does it matter, whether that writer wrote it? Isn't "Shakespeare" a grouping of texts, anyway?)

I think about 習字/書道 every day but almost never pick up a brush* because I'll suspect but not know how poorly I'm writing.

*I did play around a bit in this workshop I took on Hebrew calligraphy, which thinks about the whole process in a very different way.

So, in the hope of inspiring myself to put brush to paper, I've asked AI (ChatGPT) to write me a tanka about shodou, something that I hope no one ever has written (brushed) and therefore I can't get all that wrong. Here's what it's come up with:

筆の先
fude no saki

心をうつす
kokoro wo utsusu

墨の海

sumi no umi

白き和紙には

shiroki washi ni ha

風すらとまる

kaze sura tomaru

Quite nice!—though it could use kigo. (Never have known whether to go for kigo specific to the season as current in Japan or here; Japan out of respect, but here might be more in the spirit of the form.)

Very much interested in shiroki, I'd think a more classical form of shiroi. Kind of an amazing choice by AI, per my request for tanka. 

Now, to choose a brush and review my options for hentaigana!

♥