Departure
Book and text by Elizabeth McKee
Departure
In the slow dawn
she began to see—
though the ancient voices
crowded her vision
with their sage advice
and familiar roots
beckoned her back
Listen! They cried.
But she ran on—
past the curious monument’s sacred texts.
And on
through tripping darkness.
Away from the
graying messengers
and confused friends crying
Stay!
as she leapt into the strange blue morning
where a fearless life waited—
only for her.
This is #1 of my 60by62 books with my poem Departure added in brush lettering throughout in 2014. Adding both text and a title page to a completed book was a little tricky.
This book began in August 2008 with random marks on a full sheet of Arches Text Wove paper (25″ x 40″) from me, Frances Gregory, Diane Estham, Helen Csont and Brenda Luscott. I owe them many thanks for letting me join their “summer camp”.
Once home and faced with a sheet of paper with chaotic marks I transferred an image of the Phaistos Disc onto it and played with the characters presented to me. I wanted to give another story to the woman figure who was frozen in place and time.
My book was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem The Journey.
The book’s main medium is pastel – a rather silly medium for a book – but then I discovered SpectraFix which fixed the pastels without dulling the colours.
Dimensions: closed W 11. 875″ x H 13.75″ x D.375″