Our First Year

It's our very first wedding anniversary this Sunday. Gifts made of paper traditionally mark the first year of marriage, which is lucky really because precious metals are way beyond my student budget. Paper, on the other hand, I can definitely manage. I had a little packet of beautiful deckle edge cotton rag paper that I'd been wanting to use for ages so I went for a sneaky fossick through Jack's storehouse of poems and found another of his unusual translations, "je donne a mon espoir" by Apollinaire. The hopeful and romantic sentiment of the poem seemed the perfect choice to celebrate a first wedding anniversary. This is how Jack's version of it goes:

I give for hope my eyes
semi-precious stones
I give for hope my hands
victory palms

I give for hope my feet
supermarket carts

I give for hope my mouth
this kiss

I give for hope my nostrils
sampling spring flowers

I give for hope my heart
keeping its promise

I give for hope the future
flickering like a candle
far off in the forest

What a beautiful poem! As an extra surprise I took the idea of a light shining in the forest and made a miniature paper theatre that is assembled on the base of the gift box.

Using photocopied images by Jack's favourite illustrator, Gustave Dore, I made a series of cut-outs in each piece to create an illusion of depth that leads the eye through the dark forest to the light shining from the back panel.

An aerial view so you can see how it's constructed:

Here's to the first of many more happy years to come!