TEA PARTIES vs COFFEE SHOP CULTURE

We used to have tea parties @Gini's Tea Rooms on April Fools Day
They were benefits for touring poets,and goodwill flowed freely
Tea and scones and jam and cucumber sandwiches were the order of the day
and original poetry and music were the lingua franca
Now tea has again been appropriated for political purposes
much like those tea bales thrust overboard in Boston Harbor
as a protest against taxation without representation
Well,we are more than this!Culture is a kiss of possibilities
so every independent coffee shop now has poetry readings
and open mikes where democracy can be practiced to perfection
note that we do not gather solely for coffee consumption-
some of us are catholic enough to embrace tea in all its forms and pleasures
from Japanese Tea Rituals to Zen teas of meditative qualities
So it was we pilgrimaged to Shriner University
to share with their arising Spring Flower poets
strains of older,weedier varieties.We listened more than spoke
and marveled at how variety and diversity finds truth in resonance
Note that these gatherings are rare ,even when ritual
Hear how spoken word is a form of addiction-once bitten,the bug
resides within both pen and hand,diary and mooncloud meditations
We hears stories that would break your art-
of cancers and recoveries,of healing and harmonies
of tears and lost loves,of brave ones struggling to articulate
how the gathering of circles with their story stick
allows all and each and every rites of passage-we
left when tears of joy streaked all our faces
and will return to learn the many languages of dreaming
within our cracked coffee cups-where all the Light gets in!
@SHRINER UNIVERSITY COFFEE SHOP SPOKEN WORD NIGHT April 7,2010