It all started when friend and book editor Janey Bergam paid a visit to the LA home of Keanu Reeves. After sharing some sad songs, the actor decided to poke fun at his compositions by writing down some tongue-in-cheek poetry.

Bergam passed the verses on to a friend, artist Alexandra Grant, and six months later, was handing it back to Reeves in the form of a private gift book (sample page at left). That same tome has now been run up as Ode to Happiness, a 4,000-copy limited edition produced with some far away help. Per today’s BBC News item:

Grant and Reeves went to Germany to work with Gerhard Steidl–a renowned printer of arts books–to reproduce Ode, printed on thick, quality paper with its own slipcase…

“It’s very much an artist’s book–a book that’s meant to be held and touched,” Grant says. “We really cared about the quality of the paper as the drawings are really prints.

Reeves, who signed copies in London over the weekend, tells the BBC he and Grant have plans for a second poetry book, Haikus of Hope. Maybe this will translate into an increased famous-poets cameo quotient in the third Bill & Ted installment. Poetry on, dude!