Green Tea (Dale Ritterbusch)

This morning is cold here, so cold!  But also sunny and snowy and Christmas-y. I have spent a little while looking through poems finding peace and solace and joy, as always, but also delight in new perspectives on common things, like fences and table umbrellas and green tea.  I do think poetry is amazing in its ability to show us new ways of looking at life, and good poets always teach me something new about describing or feeling or knowing. Poetry also allows me a place to grieve, to remember, to bear witness, to understand, and to love....wonderful.

try this:

Green Tea 

There is this tea

I have sometimes,

Pan Long Ying Hao,

so tightly curled

it looks like tiny roots

gnarled, a greenish-gray.

When it steeps, it opens

the way you woke this morning,

stretching, your hands behind

your head, back arched,

toes pointing, a smile steeped

in ceremony, a celebration,

the reaching of your arms.