The Way of Tea

Hello fellow Toads! I am pleased to be able to make my prompt debut today on my birthday. I figured my first prompt should do double duty; it should introduce me a bit as well as give a nudge to your muse. So I decided to riff off of something near and dear to me, Japanese tea ceremony. I’ve been fascinated with Japanese culture for much of my life, so when the opportunity presented itself to study tea ceremony in depth I jumped at it.

The founder of the big three schools of tea, Sen No Rikyu was a poet as well as a tea aficionado. He wrote 100 small poems about the practice of tea. Besides for being quite helpful to aspiring chajin (literally “tea people” – those who are serious in their studies of tea), I’ve found they can be quite inspiring outside the tearoom as well. Today I’ve chosen 7 of them to serve as your inspiration. Create a poem based on any one of these for today’s prompt.

•  Once a flower’s season has passed, it should not be brought in from another location for display in the tearoom.
•  In your temae (specific form of making tea) if you only concentrate on giving a strong performance, then this “strength” is likely to strike the guests as weakness or a lack of dignity, or else generates a mood of oppression.
•  If you make tea for people returning from a flower viewing, displaying a painting of flowers or birds, or a flower arrangement in the tearoom is inappropriate.
• When you serve tea to your guests, you should simply serve tea from your heart, and think about nothing more.
•  The best way to remember how to make good koicha is to simply make it frequently. Experience is the key.
• The questions of how to begin and what to think are matters for one’s own heart to resolve. Of oneself, for oneself – you must be your own teacher.
• See with your eyes! Listen with your ears! And if you wish to smell the fragrance, press for an explanation of every unresolved matter until your understanding is complete.

As per usual, this ought to be a new poem you’ve written. And remember to show your fellow toads some love! At the beginning of tea lessons, there’s a part where all the students encourage each other to do their best; let’s remember to cheer each other’s poetic endeavors on by visiting and commenting on their work.