stonepicnicking_okapi

For Jazz Appreciation Month, I checked out The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire be Ted Gioia. Interestingly, this is a anthology organized by song and each entry lists all the notable versions of that song rather than by artist or chronology.

I wanted to do a day of tea poems, and so I read about the song "Tea for Two." I like this Afro-Cuban version by Mark Levine called "Te para Dos."



So the recipes in Eat this Poem: A Literary Feast of Recipes Inspired by Poetry by Nicole Gulotta were too fancy for me. I hate cooking. But I wanted to try one for the sake of it. And the only one that remotely appealed were some Earl Grey shortbread. Basically, make shortbread and mix Earl Grey leaves in it. Here they are.



They were fine. The Earl Grey flavour wasn't very strong. I think if I did it again I would leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight (as recommended) and use more tea in the batter to give it a stronger flavour. But the boys even ate them so, you know, they weren't bad.

So here is a tea poem from the Eat this Poem collection.

Tea by Jehanne Dubrow

Tonight I’m fruit and clove. I’m bergamot.
I drop a teabag in the cup and boil
the kettle until it sings. As if on cue,
a part of me remembers how to brew
the darker things—those years I was a pot
of smoky leaves scented with orange oil.
Truth is: I don’t remember much of school,
the crushed-up taste of it. I was a drink
forgotten on the table, left to cool.
I was a rusted tin marked childhood.
I don’t remember wanting to be good
or bad, but only that I used to sink
in water and wait for something to unfurl,
the scent of summer in the jasmine pearl.

---

Of course, I wanted to write my own tea poem. And I wanted to do a concrete poem (a shape poem) so I combined the two. Unfortunately my home printer is in severe need of repair so you can't read it but I am cutting and pasting the words in a cut. These are etherees (technically, I think, 4 inverted/reversed etherees - the poetic form). They are arranged in more or less the shape of a tea bag and the points (the last line of each) spell out: tea! - for? - two? - for

So "Tea for Two"



Tea for Two by okapi

two leaves, a bud plucked abundantly
from terraced slopes, treated reverently,
sent nigh and far, across the sea,
in sachet, tin, thoughtfully
awaiting verity
of hour, and we
fixedly,
gasping
tea!

teak tannins expressed—who could want for more?
not me, you see, in this tiresome chore
some call life, needs must sometimes pour
on troubles a respite or
hot water, well-steeped lore
leaves much to adore,
reveal, implore,
as well as
answer
for

no second thought, a second mug, for you,
on cusp of afternoon, overdue
a pause for a lost cause, a few
more moments, breaths, would mean, to
one whose forgotten who
is who, the world, do
tell me, this tea,
is it for
one or
two?

the agony of the leaf, nothing more
will do for you and me. it’s faint chore
to put a kettle on, to pour
a couple, settle in or
settled down, rest, explore,
open our mind’s door
to fragrant lore,
what are we
waiting
for?