Page 2: The one that started it all

Page two, the original 1st page, is the one that started it all. When J asked me to write some words for his pages he said that he wanted, “The first thing off the top of my head”. This page came easy for me. I looked at the visuals and could see many things of symbolic importance. The shell is the most obvious visual pull and the birds flying free from the cage is cliché. Another thing I noticed was, at my first glance, it appeared that there was a mass of water in the distance behind the city. So with the water reference and the shell, my mind gave way to many ocean/ water themes:

“Rippled waves…
The voice from mother,
Slowly pulling us under…”

“Our ocean shell bed waits for me,
Held captive by a facade tide”

“the blood thick foam”

Another theme that I used was that this figure was coming “home” from a long journey:

“A first and last place I want to be,
Silent whispers of an autumn’s lost grace”

“The voice from mother”

“Home…”

And then I began to construct a theme that loosely carries through the whole book… and that is a love theme. Not just love, but that this figure has lost someone they love:

“A first and last place I want to be”

“Mocking, birds fly…
To a new love…”


The tricky thing to look at is that a lot of the words and phrases I used have two meaning that lend a hand to a couple of these themes. The phrase “the voice from mother” I used to give that feeling of coming home and recognizing those things that make home what it is. It also refers to the sound of crashing waves as in “Mother Nature”. The phrase “an autumn’s lost grace” is to signify that some time has passed since this figure has been to this place.
In all, this page is about a person coming home after a long journey and having to deal with memories from the past. And these memories are the things that had maybe caused this figure to leave on a journey. And as much as this home is a comfort it is also a painful burden. This is my favorite page… because when writing it my subconscious was un-infected at this point. So you’re getting the full surrealist experience on this page.
-Mark-