Five Oceans in a Teaspoon is a book and multimedia project written by muckraking journalist/poet Dennis J Bernstein, visualized by pioneer designer/author Warren Lehrer. A large collection of short visual poems, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon consists of a book (Paper Crown Press), animations, an exhibition, and reading/performances by the author and artist.

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon
Written by Dennis J Bernstein. Visualized by Warren Lehrer.

Introduction by Steven Heller.

Published by Paper Crown Press, September, 2019.

ISBN 978-0-9969506-3-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933829

Hardcover, quarter cloth binding, 6.75” x 6.6” x 300 pages. Full color cover with embossed type, metallic foil. Black and white interior.
Printed on archival paper.
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In 1979, Bernstein and Lehrer began working on a book of short poems, originally titled Stretch Marks. Instead of completing that book, Dennis and Warren leapt into writing their first play together, and over the intervening years they collaborated on three books including French Fries (now considered a classic in experimental literature and expressive typography). A few years ago they began collaborating again on poems. Dennis’ writing. Warren’s visualizations. Now, on the 40th anniversary of their original effort, they have completed the book of poems. Comprised of 225 poems (including a dozen or so from the original effort), Five Oceans in a Teaspoon reflects Bernstein’s life experiences and the artistry of Bernstein and Lehrer at the height of their creative powers.  

As with his journalism, Dennis J Bernstein’s poems reflect the struggle of everyday people trying to survive in the face of adversity. Divided into eight movements, the book reads like a memoir in short visual poems. It spans a lifetime, lifetimes: growing up confused by dyslexia and a parental gambling addiction; graced by pogo sticks, boxing lessons and a mother’s compassion; becoming a frontline witness to war and its aftermaths, to prison, street life, love and loss, open heart surgery, caring for aging parents and visitations from them after they’re gone. Warren Lehrer’s typographic compositions give form to the interior, emotional and metaphorical underpinnings of the poems. Together, the writing and visuals create a new whole that engages the reader to become an active participant in the navigation, discovery, and experience of each poem. As the title suggests, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon distills a wide expanse of territory with minimal means.

PRAISE FOR FIVE OCEANS IN A TEASPOON

“Brilliant and beautiful!
Thank you for bringing in the new.”

Alice Walker

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet,
author of The Color Purple

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon is an engaging masterwork of poetic visualization that has only a handful of precedents in literary and design history.”

Johanna Drucker

Los Angeles Review of Books

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope. Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.”

Bob Holman

poet, poetry activist and chronicler,
founder: Bowery Poetry Club

“The gutsiness and raw emotion of the writing, revelatory appeal of the visual compositions, and brevity of the form creates an intensely moving, experiential journey.”

Steven Heller

design and visual culture historian,
columnist, author of over 180 books

“A perfect book! …and the wonderful animations serve as their own performances of the poems.”

Debbie Millman

Design Matters

“A truly moving reading experience.”

AIGA Eye on Design

“Bernstein and Lehrer’s new book is a masterful contribution to the genre they’ve helped shape… Turning the page is like listening to a perfect jazz solo… remarkable, inevitable but unpredictable.”

Levi Sherman

Artists’ Book Reviews

“A tour de force… The very act of conscious reading enacts what is essential to each poem’s emotional and metaphoric center… making Five Oceans a rather remarkable introduction to poetry itself.”

Susan Viguers

CBAA Book Art Theory Blog

2019 STA 100

Society of Typographic Arts

WINNER

2019 Scholarship: Creative Work Award

Design Incubation

WINNER

2020 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Poetry

Independent Publisher

WINNER

2020 Indigo Design Award, Book Design

Indigo Design Awards

WINNER

2020 Indigo Design Award, Mixed Media/Moving Image

Indigo Design Awards

WINNER

2020 Best Book Award, Poetry

American Bookfest

WINNER

Platinum Award, Book/Publication Design

MUSE Creative Awards

WINNER

2020 Best Book Award, Poetry

International Book Awards

FINALIST

2020 Design Award, Motion Graphics

Communication Arts Design Awards

FINALIST

SAMPLE PAGES/PAGE SPREADS

from six of the eight movements

lake childhood

tracings

subtractions and addictions

front lines

on the streets, under lock’n key

river returns the sky

ANIMATION SAMPLER

Living with Alzheimer’s

Equal Time

Knitting Club

Multi-Tasking

Recovery Room

Death of a Family

Disaster Relief

Police Brutality (On Steroids)

Avowel

Heart’s Temple

Lehrer has made/continues to make animations based on select poems from Five Oceans in a Teaspoon. Based on the page compositions—and always rooted in Bernstein’s words—the animations allow for a different kind of typographic realization/performance of the poems. In Living with Alzheimer’s, we experience letters struggling to become words, searching for memory; thoughts halt, rotate and stretch in a confusion of pleasure, frustration, habit and empathy. In the animated poem Knitting Club, a circle of women spin yarns that unfold into patterns of storytelling, textiles, music at once down to earth and of the spheres. The animations can live on their own or function as links to the printed book. They can be seen online and shared through social media, and are featured in Lehrer/Bernstein’s live performance/readings, in exhibitions, and public screenings and projections. Please share them with others and spread the word about Five Oceans in a Teaspoon.

Animations art directed by Warren Lehrer, written by Dennis J Bernstein. Animations produced with the assistance of Brandon Campbell and Najeebah Al-Ghadban. Original soundtracks composed and performed by Andrew Griffin.

PHOTO GALLERY