Poetry Book from Karen's Whimsy



This is the first page of a poetry book I'll be creating to go along with a series of Poetry Writing workshops that I'm writing for the International Society of Altered Book Artists. Below is an example of a pantoum and the art work that I created to go along with it. You can read more examples of pantoums on my Pantoums page. In addition, if you like the art work and poetry here, I hope you'll take a look at my other Altered Books and Reliquaries.

Poetry Book

Poetry Book :: Garden Poem

In My Garden

Light sifts through the Japanese maple.
There was a time I thought it would never grow.
But in my garden, all things are possible.
The perfume of crushed sage lingers on my fingers.

There was a time I thought nothing would grow.
Crows chatter in the highest birch branches.
The perfume of crushed sage lingers on my fingers,
And I touch the silky orange skin of a California poppy.

Crows chatter in the highest birch branches.
The star jasmine is overflowing.
I touch the silky orange skin of a California poppy,
And worry for the sparrow that sleeps alone in the maple.

The star jasmine is overflowing.
Moonlight sifts through the Japanese maple.
I worry for the sparrow that sleeps alone in its boughs.
In my garden, all things are possible.

About This Altered Page

The book that I'm altering for my poetry book has a very unusual shape, which I love. It is 13 3/4" tall and 4 1/2" wide. It may not turn out to be the best choice for a poetry book, because of how tall and skinny it is, but I'm determined to make it work.

I've decided that for a new challenge I wanted to use my own photographs for this book of poetry. My garden is so beautiful right now, that it was a real joy to go out there with my digital camera and shoot some pictures of all the trees and flowers that are in bloom and that I'm writing about in my poems.

I printed the image of the Japanese maple on silk tissue paper. I had already prepared the book by covering the pages with text from a book on perennials (the original book was an ABC book on fashion.) Then I used a cosmetic sponge and smoothed a light wash of gesso over the page to subdue the text. I painted matte medium over the double page spread, and carefully placed the silk tissue image on top, making sure the book was opened flat and that the tissue reached down into the gutter of the page. I was happy to have the tissue paper wrinkle here and there. I then painted more medium over the image.

The poem was typed and printed on white matte paper. I tore around the edges and glued it in place where I thought the photograph lacked interest. I definitely didn't want to cover up the beautiful blue patches of sky that were coming through at the top. I placed torn strips of Japanese lace paper around all the edges to soften them up a bit. And finally I used Portrait oil pastels to highlight around the outside of the page.

I had to do the scan for the image above in two parts because the length of the book doesn't fit on the scanner. With a little creative editing in Photoshop, I was able to bring the two halves together so you can see the whole page.



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