Congratultions to the Winners of T Ching’s 2022 Tea Poetry Contest
There were fifty-six entries in this year’s contest representing different genre. We thank everyone who participated and congratulate our winners. As interest grows in tea poetry, we can look forward to adding specific categories next year.
Winning poems below.
1st Place – Joann Condino
Joann Condino is a working artist and poet living in northern Michigan on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Her days and sometimes nights are filled with making , teaching art and selling the work of fellow Northern Michigan artists in her Three Pines Studio and Gallery. One of her passions is designing and printing woodblock tea towels. Introduced to tea by a dear friend she makes her tea ritual a very important part of her day.
2nd Place – Leather Lavoie
I am a passionate amateur tea drinker in the process of writing a book on tea.
3rd Place – Barbara Coppel
I am a full-time cat mom from North Carolina. I enjoy exploring teas and the world with my husband. I like growing unusual plants and cultivating eclectic friendships. I hope to grow camellia sinensis starting this year.
Honorable Mention – Tie – Barbara Flaherty & Goran Gatalica
Barbara Flaherty
I wrote this poem for a tea party I had Apri 19th 2003. Since that time, I have had several tea parties. I introduced my 3-year-old granddaughter to tea and now at 17, she is a tea drinker. We enjoyed going to tea rooms often and she loved getting that as her birthday present. One year she requested that her birthday party to be a tea party. We had fun choosing the menu and setting up the table. I don’t consider myself a tea aficionado, however I enjoy good tea and have it every day. My favorite kind of tea is black. I am pretty much a purist. I don’t ever add milk and only occasionally a tiny amount of honey or raw sugar.
Goran Gatalica was born in Virovitica, Croatia, in 1982 and currently resides in Zagreb, Croatia. He finished both physics and chemistry degrees from the University of Zagreb and proceeded directly to a PhD program after graduation. He has published poetry, haiku, and prose in the literary journals and anthologies. Gatalica has received many honors for his poetry and haiku, including Award Dragutin Tadijanović, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the poetry book Kozmolom (2017), the honor “Haiku Master of the Month” (Rikugien Gardens and Biei, NHK WORLD TV, Japan, 2016 and 2017), the Basho-an Award (Tokyo, Japan, 2019 and 2020). He is a member of the Croatian Writers’ Association.
1st Place
Tea Routine
Days are defined by
what tasks are done.
Week days – official work days
Weekends – chore days
There is a rhythm
There is comfort in the pattern .
There is solace in routine:
We schedule meals
when to wash our hair
paint our nails
When to exercise
When to drink tea
When to breathe deeply
When to hope
When to love
Then war comes
No routine
No comfort
No solace
New pattern-
Fear
Death
Homelessness
Smoke
Guns
Weekdays
Weekends
Every day
– Joann Condino
2nd Place
Hot bubbles boiling
Rising mist happiness
My tea kettle sings
– Heather Lavoie
3rd Place
Tea Time Ramblings…
We built a fire for comfort to relax
Maybe green tea to ease our backs
We put a kettle on to boil
Knowing our Pu-erh will never spoil
Soon we dreamed of taking Ataya in Dakar
While sipping rooibos from afar
Afternoon tea in London sounds so nice
We’d drink Earl Grey once or thrice
In the kingdom of the Czars
We’d make our tea with samovars
Over to the Outback for a cuppa
Make it from a root of yucca
In South America there’s no debate
Yerba Mate is just great
Back home with words of Lao-Tzu
Camellia sinensis, we love you!
– Elizabeth Copple
Honorable Mention – Tie
Friendship Tea
Come sit and spend some time with me
And while we chat, we’ll drink some tea.
In this busy world of ours
There’s hardly time to sit for hours
To share a friend’s company.
We’re rushing here and rushing there
And don’t have time to sit and share,
A hope, a dream, a laugh or two.
I think it’s sad, don’t you?
So come and spend some time with me
And while we chat, we’ll drink some tea.
– Barbara Flahrety
with clear awareness
my father turns his tea bowl
clockwise twice
– Goron Gatalica
