Poetry Teatime: More than the sum of its parts
Poetry Teatimes have been the highlight of our fledgling home-schooling experience. We decided at the onset to go “the whole hog,” dusting off the family china and releasing it from captivity in the china cabinet. We even serve the lemonade from the teapot and steep my tea “properly” using loose leaf tea leaves. It has become a ritual of family and history as well as of poetry – and an opportunity to celebrate links to our culture and family many thousands of miles across the sea.
Each week as we sit in our finery (thank-you, dress-up box!), I am reminded happily of learning poetry as a child and sitting Trinity College of London Speech and Drama exams in rural New Zealand. I can still recall many of the poems and the memories of discussing poetry with my wonderful teacher, Edith Grut. Feeling a good poem roll off your tongue is something every child (and adult) should experience.
Our local library is such an amazing source of poetry books so we are never short of reading material. Our most popular choices are nonsense poems and nature poetry. The squirrels and cardinals outside the window seem to enjoy them too.
Poetry Teatime has become so much more than the sum of its parts and we look forward to it every week, debating at length the merits of various baked treats, picking flowers for the table and selecting teacups to coordinate with our outfits. Thanks, Brave Writer, for introducing the magic to our family.
Sarah
Image (cc)
