FIRST CUP OF TEA

the teabag's squished and squashed and mashed

'tween teacup and 'tween spoon,

the teapot's hopes are tossed and dashed,

its song now out of tune.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Accuracy in a world of errors. ☕

HAIKU

At the convention 

For haikus, three new poets

Walk into a bard.

HAIKU

Let's have at the day!

Treat it like any challenge 

And just ask A.I.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Where anticipation and expectation roll into one big delectation - at the tea station. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

🎶🎵🎶"We all sip for that mellow dopamine.🎶🎵🎶

The first draft of Yellow Submarine by tea-loving Ringo Starr.☕

HAIKU

Monday has arrived

Sweeping the weekend away 

With its long work broom.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Warning; side effects include happiness, daydreaming, pondering and satisfaction. ☕

HAIKU

Time weighs it's anchor

To allow us to pass through

The Straits of Sunday.

HAIKU

Our words are like light

Sent out to the universe:

Unedited stars.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

The Imagination Tree bears fruit. ☕

HAIKU

Our dreams are echoes:

Mere subconscious yodelling

On faraway hills.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Swallows and Amazons - a little known fact; Arthur Ransome got the title for his famous children's adventure series after finishing a cuppa and taking a delivery from a courier. Probably. ☕

HAIKU

The words 'Love' and 'Hate'

Come from the same alphabet:

Letters choose wisely.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Where the infinite possibilities of the imagination meet the finite dimensions of your teacup. ☕

HAIKU

Time is a garden:

And we are the hardiest

Of perennials.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Imagination's universal translator. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

From expectation to satisfaction in just one sip. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Rest awhile & take some time

To drink this brew & then unwind

For tea is not just any drink

It makes us ponder, stop, and think.

 

"Do people still wash their front steps?"

"And how do porcupines have sex?"

"Why is Pluto not a planet?"

"And where the hell's the Isle of Thanet?"

HAIKU

When I was a kid 

Alphabetti spaghetti

Counted as homework

HAIKU

I smile at my wife,

At the confetti blossom,

And us oldyweds.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Never Knowingly Undersupped. ☕

HAIKU

Echo meets her fate

When Narcissus rejects her:

Repeat after me.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I like to think that the slight tannin stain on my old chipped mug is where the mug itself stores its own fond memories of tea. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Sipping is fun but life demands the occasional slurp. ☕

HAIKU

Time's own dividers:

A universal flat-pack

With no instructions.

HAIKU

Language is broad strides:

Haiku's are the tiny feet

Of perfectionists.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I thank the woman who picked the leaf,

the farmer who milked the cow,

the potter who made my old, chipped mug,

and the present for just being now. ☕

HAIKU

Now is a market 

Where The Past and The Future

Haggle for our time.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Ponder of the day - are people who drink green tea known as tea-cologists? 🤔☕

HAIKU

Haikus are simple

Prime numbers of poetry:

Elegantly formed.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Makes the world feel that bit saner. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

My Sunday best. ☕

HAIKU

Lines are now forming

Atop Poetry Mountain:

High queues for haiku's.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

As I make it, it's a hope, as I drink it, it's a pleasure, when it's finished, it's a memory, then it returns, to a hope once more. Tea is life in a cup. ☕

HAIKU

Time's playing Pooh Sticks

Casting twigs into the stream - 

Watching us float by.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

 Redefining excellence, one sip at a time. ☕

HAIKU

The Earth fires rockets 

To the moon and at itself:

Space between the ears.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

As I get older I identify more and more with my teapot; rarely used, merely decorative, and only taken out on special occasions. 😂☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

We measure our journey in such small sips; savour every one, for they are bookmarks to the future. ☕

HAIKU

Sunday's sweetest song

Is its silent melody 

That lets us sleep in.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Consistency in a cup. ☕

HAIKU

Today I paddle;

The rock pool of yesterday

Covered by the tide.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I ponder on the fact that every atom in my tea was once forged from a dying star or produced milliseconds after the Big Bang.

Then I wonder, is milk 1st or 2nd even worth considering due to the cosmological implications for the humble cuppa?

It is.

Milk first! 

Blast off!! 🚀☕

HAIKU

Soft Sunday whispers

Under a lazy duvet

Lest we wake Monday.

HAIKU

Spring's ascendancy

Dismisses frosty mornings

As the earth softens.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

What George Harrison was drinking when he wrote Here Comes The Sun. ☕☀️

REVISION, RE-EDITED

The poet rides alone and hard along the alchemic trail,

trapped inside their own construct,

a perpetual motion machine of the edit.

But there comes a point where there is no more chaff to discard,

no more lead to be sacrificed in the crucible of revision.

There comes a time when they must announce to the world, 

"Here it is - my newborn poem."

And the world more often than not replies, 

"Ahh. Aren't they...oh! Erm, such an interesting face."

HAIKU

Sunday shushes us

Like a friendly teacher would:

Now, fingers on lips.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Enabling us all to be mudlarks of the imagination. ☕

BAMBOO AND THE DOGWOOD TREE

Bamboo is the noisiest wood

You can hear it growing, hark!

Yet the flowering dogwood tree

Has the most silent bark.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I've found the secret to perpetual emotion. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

A standalone anthology. ☕

HAIKU

Time cashes our cheques

In the lost memory banks;

Pictures, overdrawn.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

A metaphor for life itself; ignore the appearance of the cup, it's always what's inside that counts. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Where the journey is always more enjoyable than the destination. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

So good I had to SHOUT ABOUT IT. ☕

HAIKU

We are reflections

Held fast in every mirror,

Trapped at our oldest.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I'm lactose intolerant, but I don't want to milk it. ☕

HAIKU

Whisper it quietly 

But my clock's two minutes fast.

Hi, from the future.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I haven't found Dr Livingstone but I've found the source of the smile, I presume. ☕

HAIKU

Walked to the haiku

To find all that I wanted.

Well, I say all...

HAIKU

The Artists palette 

Parked in neutral. The sky smudged

Like a lost excuse.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Boilit, Sippit and Looseleaf - Dickensian tea merchants. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Brigadoon. Every morning. ☕

BE MY VALENTINE

Be my Valentine:

Even though he was beaten,

Stoned and beheaded.

For nothing says love

More than a stoned, headless saint,

And forecourt flowers.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I've travelled oceans of tea to arrive at this one small cup. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

It is far from a coincidence that the words 'first' and 'thirst' sound so alike. ☕

THE PLOUGH

Here's to every furrowed groove 

That’s marched across my brow,

Proof I’ve lived, I’ve laughed, I’ve stressed

Behind Time's skin-deep plough.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Giving the Imagination muscles a workout. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I glance briefly at a cupboard full of cups and saucers as I pull out a mug. I can almost hear an audible sigh from the posh china as once again expediency overrules decorum. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

The sun rises as I sup - and I'm only 99% convinced that the two things are not related. ☕☀️

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I'm tickled pink

I love this drink

It keeps the blues away.

Earl Grey or not

It hits the spot

It colours all my day. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Grateful to the Tea Gods for holding up Now for the briefest of moments for the longest of looks. ☕

LIFE'S A JIGSAW

Life's a jigsaw. Many don't get to finish the puzzle, even less appreciate the picture. Everyone's picture is different. Everyone's box is the same. 🧩🧩🧩

FIRST CUP OF TEA

the contents from continents, afar,

whose contents, content us, thus far. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Time takes a moment's break while Memory

plays its greatest hits and gives a

shout-out

to the Future 

(who neither have met but have heard great things). ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Every sip is a small negotiation with impermanence. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Perfect for those days full of choice - whatever the whether. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

First ponder of the day; someone, somewhere will be having their first ever first cup of tea, and someone, somewhere will be having their last. 🤔

Therefore, the key to a long & happy life is to always stay ahead of the first person and to always stay just behind the second person. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

From a steaming pot

or a steaming kettle

just the one first cup

and the day can settle. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Welcome to Ponder - Population, 1. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

the first sup's always too hot

the last sup's always too cold

the art is to find that Goldilocks spot

then the rest of the day can unfold. ☕

WHICH COFFEE?

It's better to order flat white

An espresso but kept out of sight

You can trick all your mates

But this drink equates 

To a pacifist wanting a fight!

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Tea related songs you could sing to yourself as you make your tea.

Love Is The Mug by Roxy Music

Sip Slidin' Away by Paul Simon

Anything by The Sweet(ner)

Sugar Sugar by The Archies

Smells Like Tea Spirit by Nirvana

Bohemian Rhapsotea by Queen

Stir It Up by Bob Marley

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I sip around the chip

And sometimes even glug

"World's Best Dad"

It's quite the brag

But it's my favourite mug. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

When brew becomes one. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

There may be trouble ahead

But while there's moonlight

And music and love and this cup

Let's face the music and sup! ☕

THE SWEETIE JAR

Returning from Birmingham Airport this morning at 5:30am: 

the large crescent moon

hangs low in the sky

hesitant to touch

the frosty horizon

like a small child's slender

finger 

which has been told to stay away from

the sweetie jar.

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Thar he blows! 

Well, it is hot.🌬️ ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Tinkle the teaspoon 

slurp the drink

take time to enjoy

take time to think

there's gold in them hills 

there's gold in that sup

there's gold in the thrills

of every first cup. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

It's a fortunate stroke of serendipity to seren-sip-a-tea. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

You might mash the bag

You might stew the leaves

You might have it black

(it's hard to believe)

You might have a mug

You might have a cup 

You might have a glug

You might have a sup

You might drink alone

You might drink in pairs

There's only one drink

And nothing compares. ☕

THE LAND THAT MIME FORGOT

If language were to disappear 

And we were left with mime

Would we turn into Una Stubbs

And Lionel Blair in time?

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Time to tinkle the teaspoon. 🥄☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Strictly come dunking. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

While a picture may paint a thousand words, the taste of that first cup of tea colours in the whole dictionary. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

The hand bone's connected to the sip bone. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

The simple act of brewing up

Of taking teabag, spoon and cup

It brings such joy

It brings such pleasure

There's that rainbow 

There's that treasure. 🌈☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Supping and pondering,

though sometimes I ponder and sup.

I can't help wondering,

what magic is there in this cup? ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

I came, I sipped, I conquered. ☕

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Teaching a juvenile January how to start the morning. ☕

REFRIGERATED RESOLUTIONS

My fridge is stuffed with trays of leftover party food covered in tin foil. I thrust a hand under the foil into one of the trays, hoping for a fat sausage roll. I pull out instead a rather tired looking carrot stick. 

Is my fridge now making new year's resolutions for me?

FIRST CUP OF TEA

Just 358 more first cups until Christmas. ☕🎄