BENCHES combines poetry and black and white photography. In their travels, poet and prose writer Betsy Joseph and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, collaborated to observe similarities and differences within and between cultures using benches and their surroundings as their focus of interest. Together they explored variety of locations and discovered the personalities of benches. Their responses to these experiences culminated in this project.

Betsy Joseph adds her unique perspective with observations of whimsy and reverential reflection in seventeen syllables. A haiku is much like a photograph, each in its way a brief observation of a moment in time. This pairing results in an effective combination.