An Ode to Happiness from Keanu Reeves

He comes across as so melancholic that fans around the world were once asked to participate in a Cheer Up Keanu Day.

Now Keanu Reeves’ first book may just be confirmation that he is as lonely and depressed as the media portrays him to be.

The actor has seen his fair share of hard times in the past, losing his long-term girlfriend in a fatal car accident not long after their daughter was stillborn.

So what do you do when it seems like life just isn’t going your way? In Ode to Happiness, it seems the Hollywood star has put pen to paper to get all the angst and despair out of his system.

“I draw a hot sorrow bath/in my despair room,” it begins.

Where else would you find “regret shampoo”, “pain soap” and “I hate myself face cream” than in the bathroom of the most depressed person in the world?

And if that still hasn’t got the need to wallow out your system, you could always slip into some “alone again silk pyjamas”.

But before you get the hankies out for a good cry, you probably ought to know that Reeves isn’t taking the poem too seriously.

According to the BBC, the poem was written as something of a joke and the 46-year-old is even hoping that people might be transformed in a positive way by reading it.

“It’s only personal in the sense of looking out and regarding my sense of humour,” he said.

“I don’t usually take baths in my despair room with a misery candle burning.”

He continues: “There is a kind of life experience in it. I was hoping people would find it relatable and hopefully transformative in a sense.

“It does start off being a true moment – that time when you’re melancholic or sad, that kind of very insular moment.

“Hopefully looking at this you can come out of it and become objective about what circumstances you’re going through and maybe have a smile about it.”

Accompanying the poem are pretty ink drawings by Alexandra Grant, a Los Angeles-based artist. Grant appreciates Reeves’ humour but also the real sadness contained within the poems.

“Our friend [Janey Bergman, editor of the book] sat at Keanu’s house one night listening to wonderfully sad self-pitying songs and Keanu, in the spirit of poking fun at them, began to write a poem,” she explained.

She added: “[The poem] needed images to match the power of the humour of each line, but also the sadness.”

If you want a copy, you’ll have to act fast. The print run has been limited to just 4,000 copies.