Tea Ceremonies for Winter

Poetry. Latinx Studies. Environmental Studies. The Japanese tea ceremony is an attempt to impart meaning to that which would otherwise go unnoticed. After all what is so different about serving pouring drinking tea than the brushing of ones teeth? No-thing. What gives significance to the serving of the tea is the ceremony itself--that is the form. For in the tea ceremony the form is the content. Now in comparison to the Western poem full of meaning allusions mythologies history etc. a haiku may just describe a scene in nature: the landscape: a river a tree a bird and not much else. But that is so very much already Rolando Pérez seems to suggest in TEA CEREMONIES FOR WINTER. So very much. The objects of nature presented in a Basho haiku for instance simply are--they exist for themselves says Pérez. If they are sublime they are not so for us and this is what we must all learn if we are to save the Earth from complete destruction--the result of our Western greed and rampant narcissism. In this light TEA CEREMONIES FOR WINTER is an invitation--through language--to let non-human objects be without submitting them to the control manipulation and exploitation of our Imperial I. Pérezs TEA CEREMONIES FOR WINTER is a book that says: we are all in this together--but that we also includes mountains rivers plastic bags plants rocks tea leaves light bulbs valves hammers mice etc. Pérez accomplishes this with simplicity and elegance of style. As one of the books haiku reads: Ancient bowls / side by side / on table / next to kettle / warm / speak say. Indeed in TEA CEREMONIES FOR WINTER all objects--human and non-human--speak say their being.