Remembrance of Water / Twenty-Five Trees

Moreover, some of our joint efforts originally appear in unusual handmade forms. A few poems in this book were first used, alongside an ink drawing or a watercolor painting by the artist, as 'livres pauvres, ' an international project conceived by Daniel Leuwers and associated with a special collection at the Pierre de Ronsard House near Tours. As to the sequence 'Remembrance of Water, ' it was conceived as a 'livre unique, ' in other words a single book consisting of both poems and original drawings. In some cases, we have initially agreed upon a general theme: 'trees, ' for instance, with the result that, in this book, the poems are often (but not always) linked to my American childhood memories, whereas the drawings take their inspiration from the artist's own emotions about trees intimately related to her life in France. Trees, like some of the other subject matter dealt with here--water (and memory), the haunting word 'ever, ' or a 'last' element of nature: to wit, another tree--provoke thoughts and feelings which may differ in their sources but which ultimately enter into dialogue.

Whatever the impetus of the collaboration, our goal is indeed dialogue, not illustration. Whence the underlying wish that these poems and images be appreciated on their own terms as well as in their interrelation.--John Taylor