Week 6 book-of-the-week is The Door in the Wall. It's inspired by an old door seen in western France, in a place called Saint-Florent-le-Vieil.
Marbled paper mirroring the colors of the old stones, the muddy Loire River, and the mossy countryside covers the outer boards. A photograph of the door in the wall that borders the park beside the old cathedral at Saint-Florent-le-Vieil is the title piece.
The accordion style book is sometimes referred to as a panel book...this artist likes to call it a swinging panel book.
The backside of the panel book is paper made from a collagraph print. Silk brocade bookcloth in aqua forms the page attachments of the accordion pages. When stretched out, the little 7 inch by 4 inch book is 6 feet long.
Gray paper, chosen to frame the photography, is the background of the front side.
This is the poem...
A tall gray wall
stones stacked and cracked
mottled moss
a mummified cast
cuts the hill in two
This side mown green,
plaited, path'd jardin pittoresque
of primever'e and jonquille,
and coiffed trees scattered about
reach for the grayish sky.
Leading to the eastern edge,
cobbled plaza crusts the rim,
and across the hazy lazy Loire
mirrors of the patchwork brim.
Spired cathedral rises up
and looks across the way
the long stone wall
a line of gray
horizon broken midway
pale blue-green door
once thick hardwood
now pealed and splintery
hangs mute and shut a mystery
as gates can sometimes be.
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| doors... |
