It is so amazing to finally have some books of my work. You probably have no idea how long it has been my dream to have my work in my own book. I sometimes doubt my own patience. I should never worry should I?

Kristyn and I met years ago. I dared to share my dream about her on our first meeting. I must admit I had to take a deep breath, before starting off with… ‘I dreamt about us the other night…’

I am so glad I did.

One of the key figures in the dream was Paul Hulbert who sat across the desk from Kristyn and I. It took me quite a while to realise he symbolised ‘flowers and gardens’ for me in the dream.

You see Kristyn is an educator like me, and got lost in the enthusiasm and passion for teaching, some how forgot her love for writing along the way. This is also her journey back to creative writing.

Nether of us knew what we would be doing together before we met, but slowly through the conversation of the dream and our backgrounds an idea surfaced. An idea about a collaboration.

So here we are years later, and Kristyn has written the most beautiful poems inspired by my photographs. Ekphrastic poetry is when art inspires literate. When art inspires poetry. Wow. When my art inspires this poetry, well, that is what I call magic. This is truely a very special and magical work.

I am still blown away by it.

I watched Kristyn change as she wrote. She is no longer the person who started this project with me. Today she works on our next one, and is writing words from the trees. Creativity flows through her, and the light in her face when see sees her words in the book is just so so beautiful.

This is a large book so that the poems and images have room to sing on the page. 297 x 297 mm bound in a delicate sepia linen, printed with six colours by momento pro. 96 pages, with 39 poems and 41 images.

We are only printing a very short limited edition print run based on preorders. At $149 it is an expensive book. But the quality far outstrips most books we purchase today, and is in the same league as our stunning Len’s Journal. This is a collectors edition. Each signed by us both, and numbered. Something that will continue to increase in value over time. Something to treasure with pride and covert with care.

Orders for this book and for ‘Our love affair with trees’ are trickling in slowly. When you buy both you will save on postage. The mark up on these books is incredibly small, and in fact if we don’t sell enough you may even be getting them below cost.

We will share some of these beautiful poems here in our newsletter. So yes, I know these images of the page spreads are probably too small to read, but we will send out some to show you their beauty.

Orders can be made here https://lensjournal.com/publications/the-unfolding

Please remember to add our other book ‘Our love affair with trees’ too. Once you have completed your details, you do need to click on the shopping cart icon at the top right of the page to complete your order by making your payment. https://lensjournal.com/publications/our-love-affair-with-trees

Please help me by investing in these unique collectable treasures. Our first books.

Photographs and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2022, Poems copyright © Kristyn Haywood.