Fran Haley of North Carolina and I are the hosts of this month’s Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com, and we are on our third and final day of October’s prompts. Hop over to check out today’s poems later in the day to read the poems this prompt inspires.
Fran Haley is a K–12 literacy educator who coordinates elementary programs centered on a love of books and the joy of reading aloud. She helps young writers find their voices on the page in creative ways. A pastor’s wife, mom, and Franna of two spirited granddaughters, she savors the quiet rhythms of rural life near Raleigh, NC. The pre-dawn hours are Fran’s sacred writing time; you can find her there in the stillness, seated at the kitchen table with a sleeping puppy in her lap. She authors the blog Lit Bits and Pieces: Snippets of Learning and Life.
Kim Johnson is the District Literacy Specialist for her rural school district in Zebulon, Georgia. She grew up a preacher’s kid (P.K.) and is a mom and grandmother who enjoys weekend glamping with her husband and three schnoodles in State Parks. Kim enjoys writing during Open Writes each month and blogs at Common Threads: Patchwork Prose and Verse.
Inspiration
Fran: While searching for ideas, I came across this fun article, 75 Best Tea Quotes and Captions. Something here may call to your poet-heart. I also encountered a phrase I hadn’t heard before: “More tea vicar.” Now, that’s just begging to be in a poem…
Kim: A telephone conversation with my aunt about a family member’s messy breakup over foreseeable differences led her to conclude with this phrase: he wasn’t reading the tea leaves. This has stuck with me for years, and I think often about all the ways we read the world – and how we respond to it.
Process
Pour a cup of tea and write with us today! Let the pen lead you to a poem ~ perhaps it’s a play on words with -tea or tea- or -ity, or maybe it’s a memory of a cup of tea with someone you love. Maybe it’s the clinking of cups on saucers that takes you to a memory of a meal – or a place. Or perhaps it’s a phrase someone has used – More tea, Vicar or reading the tea leaves – that inspires your poem today. Come have tea with us, and steep in the joy of poetry today!
Fran and Kim’s Poems
Fran:
A Spot o’ Tea
“More tea, Vicar?” asked Mrs. Krupp,
tipping her pot o’er his empty cup.
He’d barely sipped when she leaned in with glee:
“Now, dear Vicar, go on…spill the tea!”
Deacon Blythe…and Mrs. Montague?!
Rumors steeped like fresh morning brew,
stirred in pews of St. Tempest-by-the-Sea—
ah, the unholy communion of sipping hot tea!
Kim:
-tea party
such vitriolic, hateful glares
when toxic dreams become nightmares
when tearful wake-up calls come clear
about those whom we hold so dear
who are these people in disguise
who scorn us with deceiving eyes
whose poison stench of mockery
reeks truth of trust’s reali-ty?
they’re mother, father, sibling, friend~
relationships we nurture, tend
whose revelations, suddenly,
cast doubt on rooted certain-ty
and so it goes with politics
religion and its heretics
that peace we seek, that uni-ty
is really up to us, we see
we can agree to disagree
guard differences with digni-ty
Common Threads 