Jack's Birthday Book


It's that time of year again when I choose a recent poem of Jack's and work it up into something special for his birthday. This year I selected a beautiful poem, ostensibly a tribute to the late actor Alan Rickman, but really a poem about Jack's late sister Anne:


Rather a shock
i.m. Alan Rickman (1947-2016)


to think it’s been 25 years since
Truly Madly Deeply
1991

my sister died
or rather
killed herself

so hungry ghosts
seemed documentary realism
to me

living by Lake Pupuke
with its gigantic eels
and those students next door

who had to pump up the stereo
to psych themselves
into going out

every evening
1991
an unhappy time

as Rickman said
roles win Oscars
actors don’t

that swing inscribed for
Alice who used to play here
that makes the other parents

hold onto their kids
so tight
as if death were another infection

they might pick up



I created a three layer tunnel book using silhouettes of images cut from old issues of Frankie Magazine. I like the way that the silhouettes speak of loss, absence and memory.


I printed the poem on a lovely piece of acid free linen paper and mounted it behind a coloured matting. It just slots into one of the side folds of the tunnel book to display it.


For the finishing touch, I made a gate-fold slipcase using another silhouette (cut in half) that becomes a single figure when the gates are closed.

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