All Tied Up - Poetry Book Box

Next up in my series of Book Box shares is an accordion book in an old Michael Hill Jewelers box that I made for an exhibition called Visualis at the Ellen Melville Centre in 2017 and later exhibited at the 2019 Visualis Toikupu group show at Studio One Toi Tu. It features two poems set on collage pages, one on each side, At The Time and The Pursuit of Happiness, all tied up with a bow.

The rule I set myself for these is that everything has to be found from elsewhere, either discarded or given to me by people who know what I am up to. I'm not allowed to buy any materials except for the glue.

At the time

There was too much to say
so she said nothing.

The words knotted their arms together
all octopus and impenetrable ocean
swam furiously
but could not find the surface.

The Pursuit of Happiness

You say you only want
to be happy
like everyone else

But sometimes prison bars
look like a face smiling
or laughter

Sometimes they
look like a human
simply walking around
in their skin

You can watch closely
but you can only see skin

You only see smile and teeth

You see happy and sometimes
happy is the same weight as sad

Sometimes happy puts sad in a choke hold
schoolyard bully, prison guard, lock.

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[Photos by me. You can tell because once again they are not great photos but you get the gist. This will be a running theme]