For today's teatime story, we're delighted to share a poem about a family's Poetry Teatime experience! Get ready to settle in and enjoy the atmosphere.
What are the essential ingredients of a Poetry Teatime? Let this poem set the table for some tea and poetry:
Connection
Polymorpous pastry
Lovingly molded by
Small podgy hands
Manipulated swirled and squished
Into horns...almost.
Fresh cream spooned in
Delicately arranged on two ornate plates
Cupcakes in varying sizes
Proudly hosting splodges
Of ready made icing
Sit plonked impatiently
On two mismatched plates
Four white bowls
Virtuously offering grapes and tomatoes
Mismatched crockery,
Five tea cups and saucers from Nanna Birdie
—tea, strong tea served with lots of milk and sugar
Three deep blue tea cups
selected for their similarity to Nana Win's
Similar in all but colour
—tea served weak, a dribble of milk, a touch of sugar
An extra large tea pot,
Floral design offsetting the checked tablecloth
Lifted, with two hands
ceremoniously dribbling into
the heirloom vessels
Each pretty tea plate piled high
With sweet goodness
Tea steaming
Waiting to be sipped
Poetry books strewn across the table
Covered in sticky jam,
and smudges of food—memories of moments
each special and unique
in which this family sat and connected
Turns taken,
Some listening
Others passing milk jugs
Or sugar
Or brownies
Listening to the rhythm of POETs
Crying with Tennyson
Laughing with Michael Rosen
Slowly appreciating shared moments
Connection
Isn't it lovely? If you would like to share your own poems and stories with us, you can send them here.