Tea Party with Grandpa

 

Haiku for Grandpa

 

Grandpa comes to tea

Tho he'd rather be fishing

With you by his side

 

 

Check out the missing front two teeth - she's so proud!

 

Poem in Your Pocket Day (and Giveaway!)

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!  Here's my poem that I will carry with me today and share:

I slept and dreamed that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted, and behold, service was joy.

-          Rabindranath Tagore

To enter the GIVEAWAY drawing, please enter in the comments the first line/s of a poem or quote that is special to you!  (I will make another poem with these.)

The winner will be announced next Thursday, May 1st.  The prize includes tea (of course!), something to nibble, an original poem and a surprise!  Good luck!

Get Ready! And A Prayer in Spring by R. Frost

Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day!  I hope you'll play along!  I'll be ready.  I'm also hosting a GIVEAWAY!

A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends it will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Come back tomorrow to enter yourself in a GIVEAWAY drawing!

Wisteria by Lady Ise

My neighbor's wisteria, seen out my back windows this morning.  Thank you Kind Neighbor!

We benefit from the Japanese concept of "borrowed views."

Wisteria by Lady Ise

 

Of wisteria blooms

I caught sight, today, and ever since

As violet

Of the deepest hue, my passion,

Grows ever more profound!

Ise (875 - 938), was a female Japanese poet in the waka style.  

And for the oolong tea lovers reading, see a picture here inside of the famous Wistaria tea house in Taiwan (yes, spelled differently).

Thread of Pearls by Lady Ise

Hanging from the branches

of a green willow tree,

the spring rain

is a

thread of pearls.

In Tea by Tim Maxwell

The spring tea harvest in Alishan, Taiwan
May 2013

In Tea...

I have glanced into tea leaves,
and found a forest.

Tea is all in a moment,
and a way of life.

It is recollection,
and attention to Nature.

A murmur of the breeze through the trees of Autumn,
and the warm of the hearth.

Silent mornings at home,
when rain streaks the windows' panes.

If you analyze tea, you'll find chemical components,
but not a hint of Life.

Analysis is achieved through concentration,
Synthesis arrives through relaxation.

Tea relaxes the stomach,
but it revitalizes the Heart.

~Tim Maxwell

Enough Time

Wherever you are drinking your tea

Whether at work,

in a cafe,

or at home, 

it is wonderful to allow

enough time to appreciate it.

~Thich Nat Hahn

I take this writing to heart.  Over the past few years, I find that I don't drink tea much at work anymore.  The reason is that I don't have time to be with the tea.  The flavor and subtleties are lost on me as I focus on the screen and my tasks.  Instead, I drink an herbal brew and reserve my special teas for when I have the space to appreciate them.  Oh, if I really need a caffeine pick-me-up, I may pull out something.  And I have a few nice teas for the rare times when I'm chatting uninterrupted with a colleague or taking a quiet break.  But mostly, I wait to drink tea when it can have more of my attention.  

Has your tea drinking changed over time?  How so? 

Halfway Down, AA Milne

Stairway in Alishan, Taiwan

Halfway Down by A.A. Milne

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where i sit.
there isn't any
other stair
quite like
it.
i'm not at the bottom,
i'm not at the top;
so this is the stair
where
I always
stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And it isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

Sylvia Plath: Tulips

Listen to Sylvia Plath read her poem, Tulips

(Scroll down about half way at the link above to find the audio controls)

This is a poem that reminds me to be gentle with people, not to assume that I know what is under the surface.

Tulips by Sylvia Plath

The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anesthetist and my body to surgeons.

They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.
Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.
The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,
They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,
Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,
So it is impossible to tell how many there are.

My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water
Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.
They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.
Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage —
My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,
My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;
Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.

I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat
stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.
They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.
Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley
I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books
Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.
I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.

I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free —
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.

The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle : they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their color,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.

Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.
The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me
Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,
And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow
Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,
And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself.
The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.

Before they came the air was calm enough,
Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.
Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.
Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river
Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.
They concentrate my attention, that was happy
Playing and resting without committing itself.

The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.
The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;
They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,
And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.
The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,
And comes from a country far away as health.

Song of the Flower

Camellia leaves, downed by the rain, on the verdant green grass

Song of the Flower XXIII by Khalil Gibran

I am a kind word uttered and repeated
By the voice of Nature;
I am a star fallen from the
Blue tent upon the green carpet.
I am the daughter of the elements
With whom Winter conceived;
To whom Spring gave birth; I was
Reared in the lap of Summer and I
Slept in the bed of Autumn.


At dawn I unite with the breeze
To announce the coming of light;
At eventide I join the birds
In bidding the light farewell.


The plains are decorated with
My beautiful colors, and the air
Is scented with my fragrance.


As I embrace Slumber the eyes of
Night watch over me, and as I
Awaken I stare at the sun, which is
The only eye of the day.


I drink dew for wine, and hearken to
The voices of the birds, and dance
To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.


I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.


But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn.

The Stronger Pull

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love."

~Rumi, 1207-1273

I could have cleaned the office, folded the laundry or washed the dishes.  Instead, I made tea.  A far-away but near-in-heart  friend had sent some Fenghuang Shuixian.  I wanted time to taste this tea, sit alone with it and write a long letter to this friend. 

Delicious tea made exquisite by the moment.

Though I drank alone, I poured two cups: One for me and one for my friend.  I love that tea can connect us at the heart level when we open to it.

PS - Happy National Poetry Month!  Each post this month will include a poem.

Hello, Red! And After the Party

I've been adding red (in various shades including red-orange and red-pink) to the home color palette.  These red chairs and plates are the most recent celebrations of color. And it just so happened that a friend was stopping by.  A perfect reason to use the new stuff!

We had enjoyed lunch at a nearby restaurant and came home with baklava. I made tea.  I had this lovely golden saffron sugar (a Persian treat, used to sweeten tea) and noghl (almond slivers covered in rose sugar).  The sweets came with love from a friend's parents in Iran.  This tea time became an unplanned Persian celebration.  Serendipitous timing as we neared Persian New Year. Welcome Spring! 

Can you spot the barely domesticated creature below?  That's my DH - dear hubby.

The photo below is my favorite image of this post, as it captures the peace that comes after hosting a friend for tea.  That moment, that glow, that quiet lingering of sweetness before the dishes are done and life's routines resumed.