Category: Altered Poems

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

That underlying
hidden half
like some
grieving
mocking-bird,
alone in darkness
now come home.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Dreams to dreams,
shorn of leaves
drawing near the sun
through and through
the shadows shoot
And stars drop,
one by one.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

The birds that were banished,
follow and vanish
in a seething vapor sea.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Great planets that are watching haughty
treading the safe and infinite morn
I thought the three
a curious dream
No darkness, no graves, no grieving,
In a land beyond sight or conceiving,
safe from the strengthening storm.

I rang in the new year with paper boats and altered poems. I’m not happy with the little ridge under the paper on the last one. It’s the knot and tail ends of threads from the button I sewed onto the third collage (backing pages). But that aside, I’m really happy with how the last one turned out. The background image is an extreme close-up photograph of an eye, from a medical text. The “dome” is the cornea, and the “sea” is the lens. The three “planets” are vintage snaps from my button cache.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

That underlying, hidden half
Like some grieving mocking-bird,
Alone in darkness
Now come home.

I made a new book a couple of nights ago and started working in it today. This time around I’m taking the text from a collection of Ella Wheeler Wilcox‘s godawful twee poems.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

The birds that were banished,
Follow and vanish
In a seething vapor sea.

I need to take five minutes and scan these, but cell phone photos will have to do for now.

collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Dreams to dreams
Shorn of leaves
Drawing near the sun
Through and through
The shadows shoot
And stars drop,
One by one.

Fronticepiece and Title Page

Dim shadows musing dreamily
There have been wrecks
on smaller seas.

A moment’s light, a rayless tomb
A swallow darting through the room

He might have sailed
from star to star,
To find a port from which to start

We weigh the planets one by one
While spirits make
their nightly round

collage
5 x 6 3/8 inches

Zone where once
the storm-ship used to ride
Safe sheltered here
from dark and angry skies

Aaaaaaand it’s FINISHED! I’ve got some touching up to do tomorrow on end papers and whatnot, and then I’ll take photos of the completed book.

collage
5 x 6 3/8 inches

You reason in circles, to find at last
The inner world in the outer masked.

collage
5 x 6 3/8 inches

X is the Queen
of the evening star
and queen of the moon
I know by heart.