This poem is a favorite of mine and also appears in my newest book All in Measure: A Book of Hours-2020-2023. Morning tea is a ritual part of my morning. Cloistered in the house during the pandemic, the act of making tea allowed me to travel in my imagination and never failed to bring me a smile.

Jasmine Tea

Rolled balls float languidly in hot water
expanding into long curved leaves.
My glasses steam as lean over
the crackle glaze cup.
Far from my morning kitchen,
steep hillsides unfurl in my mind
as I inhale the scent.
Early sun touches serpentine rows
of waist-high bushes.
Taiwanese mists dissipate
into the gray-white sky
as they drift up tea bush covered slopes.
Down-slope, acres of jasmine.
I want to stand in the midst of those flowers
—and breathe.