Terri Tibbatts ~ Connecticut

Water for Tea
By Terri Tibbatts
2004. Edition of 50.

A collection of 72 haiku printed on small hued cards, coupled with eight sumi-e drawings of objects. Contained in a cloth envelope made of Japanese kasuri, the poems are meant to be read in conjunction with viewing the images, which are printed and painted on translucent hand-made waxed Japanese paper mounted on thin Plexiglas panels. The image cards fit into grooves in a cherry wood box that serves as a snug container for the book's multiple components, as a display case and as a light box. The back of the box is translucent, allowing light to brighten the images from behind as they slide back and forth like miniature Japanese shoji screens to create new combinations and juxtapositions. The box contains a folding panel, covered in Japanese silk bookcloth, with instructions on how to set up, read and view the book. The poems are printed letterpress on stiff hand-made papers in eight rich colors ranging from deep indigo blue and black walnut-dyed papers from Minnesota to iridescent metallic papers from India.

"Water for Tea is meant to be interactive and playful. It is a book that requires space and time to look at it," noted Tibbatts, who studied Japanese calligraphy when she lived in Tokyo in the early 1980s and later at the well-known Kampo Center in New York City. "Because haiku and sumi-e are both so minimal, the book requires the reader to use his or her own imagination and encourages personal reflection."

Written by Tibbatts over the past two years as a form of "active meditation," the poetry contained in Water for Tea represents both traditional haiku and senryu. Both are short poems of typically less than 17 syllables, but haiku generally reflects on the natural world, while senryu is concerned with human nature and is often humorous or satiric. As a result, Tibbatts' subjects range from morning glories withering after a hard frost to the loss of a dear grandmother to the relentlessness of doing laundry.

The poems, which were culled from hundreds of poems originally written by Tibbatts on paint-chip samples, are meant to be read in any order. "I liked the way the paint chips piled up like cards and loved the idea of departing from the control imposed by traditional spine-bound books," she recalled.

Initially intending to use the poetry of Matsuo Basho or other haiku masters who have inspired her work, Tibbatts took a "leap of faith" in using her own poetry. "After I got over my fear, seeing the poems on the press with ink on paper and anticipating friends, family and strangers reading and reacting to them has added a surprising and wonderful dimension to this project," she said.

Simply put –
"Water for Tea" is a book for meditating. It provides images in the Japanese style to stir your eye, haikus to stir your intellect. You provide the tea and the time.
$875