In recognition of Nancy, Pam, Sylvia, Jazzy.                                                                                        Thankful to Laverne for The Yellow Table image.                                                                                                                                                                   

They gathered monthly, writers with a penchant
for poetry and drinking tea,
sometimes rotating homes and gardens and porches
where a spread of delectable desserts and teas
welcomed the gathering.

Jasmine pearl, spiced chai, sassafras,  green citrus,
sipped in porcelain cups with saucers or wheel thrown
pottery mugs helped to ground them as they read poetry
like tea leaves sitting around an old oak pedestal table
stenciled with indentations of the old portable typewriter.  

Other times they met at the tea shop with yellow tables,
their words flowed from spiraled notebooks, steno pads,
personal journals, typed parchment, index cards wrapped
in rubber bands. Special tea arrived in vintage tea pots.
They spread poetry like strawberry jam across the tabletop..  

They filled old-school thermoses with tea and trekked
to Central Park, equipped with flannel blankets
and hand stitched quilts.  Each presented a favorite
book of poetry to splash stanzas across the sky,
drinking tea until the moon hung low enough to touch.  

A drive south to Nashville let them experience
the Thistle Farms Café and admire the chandelier
of donated teacups, sipping moringa or pomegranate
and dove into the days lyrics that hung like a yearning
for justice crafted in the Poetics of Space.  

A dream conjured the circle meeting at Walden Pond
and Yaddo seeking the wisdom of revered poets  and scribes
drinking Papal tea of red hibiscus brewed
with ginger and pineapple, blessed in language
they created to effect peace in the world.