(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Keanu Reeves has penned a poetry book which pokes fun at excessive melancholia.

The actor, who suffered personal tragedy when his long-term girlfriend died in a car crash, has gained a reputation for being gloomy and even sparked a Facebook campaign to cheer him up recently.

Now a poem that was written as a joke between friends has been turned into an art book with the help of Los Angeles based artist Alexandra Grant.

But while the literary efforts of the 46-year-old Matrix star might seem depressing and confirm his apparent unhappiness at a first glance, Keanu has said that it is actually his sense of humour.

"I draw a hot sorrow bath/In my despair room," the poem begins, followed by mentions of "regret shampoo", "pain soap", "I hate myself face cream" and "alone again silk pyjamas".

"Our friend [the book's editor Janey Bergman] 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," Alexandra told the BBC.

The script was passed on to the artist, who illustrated each line with a simple blotted ink drawing.

Keanu has insisted that while he drew upon some life experiences, the desperate circumstances he describes in Ode To Happiness are sarcastically exaggerated.

"It's only personal in the sense of looking out and regarding my sense of humour. I don't usually take baths in my despair room with a misery candle burning," he said. "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." (C) Cover Media