.:: Project #3: Handmade Book [Poem Visualization] ::.

Touched by An Angel
-Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

This is the poem I will be using for my Poem Visualization. I chose this poem because I remember reading Maya Angelou poems when I was young so I wanted to do a poem written by her. My interpretation of this poem when I first read it was that it was talking about how love can change a person's life for the better.
For the concept of my book, I think I might make the book heart-shaped showing how this poem is about love. I want to also use different images and text to further describe the poem, for example when it says "until love leaves its high holy temple", "and in its train come ecstasies", "love strikes away the chains of fear" and "In the flush of love's light" I will probably use images to convey those lines. I might include some love quotes here and there to decorate the book. But I want to close the book with a lock to show how the heart is locked because it is taken or it can be interpreted as the person's heart used to be locked away but when you open the book the person's heart is free to love. That's my ideas for now, but I still have to refine them more.