Haiku Beastiary A-E Cactus Haiku used to be my poetry blog and I also put the poems on my Cactus Haiku Instagram. It's been awhile since I've done the Insta because I got into AI art through doing the bestiary. AI art wasn't very good back then so I am redoing the AI art although the haiku are still the ones I wrote for the bestiary back then. I'll share the 2023 first AI art (with Photoshopped text) and the new 2025 art. By the latter half of 2025, the AI art models could generate text without spelling errors which could not be done in 2023. A is for Abada (Congo) B is for Bakeneko (Japan) C is for Čhápa (Lakota peoples, North America) D is for Dragon (worldwide) E is for Encantando (Brazil) A is for Abada (Congo) 2023 Artbreeder, Photoshopped text 2025 BudgetPixel, Flux 2 Pro, text done by model Abada is a Congo mythological beast with two magical crooked horns, and is striped, reddish colored, about the size of a small donkey with the head like an antelope and with a boar's tail. The horns are an antidote to poison and disease. The horns may also purify water. If an abada appears when you are a lost traveler or seriously ill, it brings hope and good fortune so you will find your way or get well. I'm not sure why but Wikipedia says they also appear in Malay and Tartar (Russian) mythologies. B is for Bakeneko (Japan) 2023 Artbreeder, photoshopped text 2025 BudgetPixel, Flux 2 Pro, text done by model In Japan, Henge (変化) or Hengeyōkai is a yokai category where animals behave like humans, often by shapeshifting into human form, walking upright, or speaking. Obake are supernatural creatures, monsters or shapeshifters. This includes the kitsune (fox shapeshifters), bakeneko (cat shapeshifters) and more. Another category of yokai are animals that behave like humans—often standing upright, wearing clothes, or speaking, but remaining in their original animal form. They are anthropomorphic animals in fixed form (no shapeshifting) that have gained immense age and wisdom and are often more than a hundred years old minimum. They are categorized by the type of animals they are like Nekomata (cat), Inugami (dog), and other animals often under the broader Dōbutsu-kei (animal yokai) umbrella. So in the above image, if she is always a cat, she would be a nekomata. Nekomatas often have two tails. If she can transform into a human,most often women, she is a bakeneko. Bakenekos are not a nice housecat type of spirit. A bakeneko sometimes eats humans including the person they take the form of. Fiercely loyal, they will take revenge on people and that person's family who drove their beloved mistress/master to suicide. They will also target people who are cruel to cats. Cats who were brutally murdered can turn into bakeneko. In that case, their murderer better watch out because they will come after them. So be good to your cat! C is for Čhápa (Lakota peoples, N. America) 2023 Artbreeder, photoshopped text 2025 BudgetPixel, Flux 2 Pro, text done by model Chapa is the Lakota Beaver spirit, known for industry, building and community. The dams the chapa makes as a home also create wetlands for water birds to nest and breed in, reduces river bank erosion, and the preserved river banks makes healthier water for the local animals to drink from. As he reforms the ecosystem near the dams, the Beaver is known as a worldbuilder. Some legends have the Beaver known for storage especially for food while others say he is a thief. The Snoqualm tribe tells a story that the Moon kept the Sun in a box. Curious about Earth the Moon went for a visit. While the Moon was gone, Beaver and Blue Jay snuck into his home. They stole the Sun's box and the Moon's fire-making tools. The Sun was heavy so halfway down the climb to Earth, they dropped the Sun's box. The box opened; the sun escaped to stay shining in the skies. Successfully bringing the fire-making tools home, Beaver found it very useful to make fires to cook and warm the home. The Beaver shared this new knowledge and tools with the community. In some tribes, the Beaver is the guardian of domestic tranquility and marital fidelity. D is for Dragon (worldwide) 2023 MonaiArt phone app, photoshopped text 025 BudgetPixel, Seedream 4.25, text done by model Stories about dragons fill the world from ancient times to modern novels. Their legends fill books. All are reptilian but dragons vary a lot according to region and era. Some are winged, others are wingless but still fly. Some are intelligent, others are ravenous beasts. Some are gods, and others demons. Some can shapeshift into humans. Some guard treasure hoards. Some are telepathic companions; others will eat you for breakfast. It just depends on the story and the times. Dragon stories go back probably since humans began telling stories. I suspect the first tales began with the flying dinosaurs. E is for Encantando (Brazil) 2023 Artbreeder, photoshopped text 2026 BudgetPixel, Grok, text done by model Remember Spock's knit hat to hide his ears? It's a leaf from the Encantando's playbook. Encantandos can turn into humans. They love parties, music and sex. The transformation isn't 100% so they wear hats to hide their blowholes still on top of their head. Encantandos can control storms, hypnotize humans, and turn humans into encantandos. If angry, they may inflict sickness, insanity or even death. Like fae stories, Encantandos abduct humans they fall in love with. If a kid is born of their affair, they may come back to take the kids back to Encante. Encante is their fae-like abundant land with no pain or death. Encantandos are based on the Amazon pink river dolphins. The pink dolphins are real. These dolphins may disappear soon. They compete with local fishers for Amazon fish. The fishermen overfish and the dolphins break nets to get at their dinner. The fishermen are unhappy they are prohibited by Brazilian federal law from killing the dolphins but at the same time are not compensated for the damage to their nets or the loss of their catch so the fishermen see the pink dolphins as dangerous to their livelihood. Since 2000, some fishermen illegally kill dolphins and chopp up the bodies to catch scavenger catfish. The catfish is a popular food in Brazil and Colombia. Illegally killing the dolphins gets rid of a fish competitor; feeding them to the catfish gets rid of the evidence. The Amazon river dolphins rarely survive long in captivity making zoos and other habitats a nonviable choice. They are also difficult to train. Wiki says only 3 zoos have them; one each in Venezuela, Peru and Germany. Only 3 despite the fact that several hundred were captured between 1950-1979 and sold to zoos around the world. The dolphins also don't bring in tourist dollars which might have made an alternative way for local humans to make a living. The dolphins need the Amazon river to survive but so do the fishermen. The Yangtze river dolphin baiji is extinct. In the 1950s, about 6,000 baiji existed but industrial and residential river pollution decimated the dolphins. In 1997, the count was 13. In December, 2006, they were declared extinct because a search could not find even one. The way things are going the Amazon pink dolphin will soon disappear too. Conclusion Let me know what you think of my little bestiary and if you'd like to see more mythic beasts like F-Z (probably divided up into 5 animals in each part due to writing time and image generating costs -- often it takes more than one generation to get what I want). Do you like the text or would you prefer just the images? Do you like the 2023 AI art images or would you prefer just the current AI art image? Inquiring minds would like to know
Wow! you got here fast! I just put it up. I'm going to call you Flash! Cool! I think it would be fun to finish the series. No I haven't seen (or heard of) the Invisible City. What's it like? ---- Separate from this, do you want to try a blog post as a Surrealist experiment. It's a game where it's a drawing or a story and one person person draws or writes a few lines. Then the next person adds to it. We could do both writing and images or even music and songs. We wouldn't have to do images every time we add writing. It could be optional. I don't know how to think of it yet. It could be two seperate characters in different parts of the same world so we could develop the characters seperately and then get them to meet. It could be the same character and in the same place and the story just goes whereever whoever take sit on their turn. I know I can add images from pasting in the image link. I'm not sure aobut hte music. It could be we use each other images as reference points for characers so everything looks congruent. Or we could just do them in different style but clothes and hair has a description -- like the way comic books will have different artists but you know its the same character because they always wear the same stuff. Anyways I want to experiment with a collaborative blog post to see how it could work. It hink would have to be like what I did, things get typed or pasted into the comments and then from there copied into the blog post. But I think the direction would have to be more fluid, not so set as in a challenge, so that's why I thought the surreal game might work.
CaylaCatz
Ok, my reply was tooo long because I had several questions about what directions the experiment might go in. So I put it in google doc so I can break it down into sections. You can skip to the end to the questions. If we decide poetry: there is a section on Renga which is a Japanese collaborative poem or if you want to do your high school type of poetry, I had a question about what which lines have to rhyme. So you don't have to read the whole thing. Or if you want me to decide by myself, I can. I don't know if you want to decide together on the experiment format. here's the paper: poetry or story that is the question: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13OsvCjhdrta02Bzk1KJkbDR3lVWt_Prv_rJpUj-mteM/edit?tab=t.0
panos
I studied this for a while and it sounds interesting. Sure, let's try it. Sounds interesting. Polish up your thoughs on it and we can begin. This reminds me of the last grade of senior high. We were doing surrealist poets in Greek Literature and me and some buddies of mine began a surrealist poetry game: One would start with the title of the poem. The second would provide the first couplet, the third the second couplet, writing whatevee came to mind, totally unrealted to the above line, just making sure they rhymed. And so on and so on... It was great fun. i still remember a few of the most funny ones....
CaylaCatz
thank you! (fyi. you don't have to do clap more on mine but just so you know if you're new. You can clap up to 20 times on the same blog at one time. After whatever time you get the quests under the giftbox for the days free credits, if you clap 10x total, you get 30 free credits. That can be 1 clap on 10 blogs or 10 claps on 1 blog or whatever combo you do for a total of 10. Just letting you know because it saved me a bit of time once I found that out.)
CaylaCatz
ok, we'll do a story. I'll set it up. I'm really sorry google docs didn't like you. It was that pesky guy, Murphy Law. Or maybe your fae who cheated you out of the second grimoire.
panos
Well, Cayla, since google documents denied me access, let me amswer anyway. Despite my uoithul forays into surrealist poetry 🙂I'm first and foremost a story guy. So, let's go for this.
CaylaCatz
oh good. A lot of people don't. Like I said it saved me a little time on my daily credit tasks. Have fun and thanks again for checking out my blog.
panos
Well, you know me, Cayla, I'm always for more mythical creatures! 🙂(Seeing the Brazilian Encantand, I cannot but wonder: Have you seen the Brazilian TV series Invisible City?)
southamericanmyth
i love this blog! i knew about the pink dolphin myth, they are also called "Boto", so sad that the real dolphin species is in danger.
DavidP
Cool. Another that you can add the Index Blog. Perhaps a 'cheap' way to earn at least 100 claps but I think serves a meaningful purpose