Musical Tea With a View

MUSICAL TEA WITH A VIEW My first and principal comfort is tea Which may be prepared in a weakened form And must be hot or the afternoon free Will be spoiled by a tiny teacup storm. The cup should be large for added volume And not too narrow so that my biscuit Doesn’t - as I gaze over the cup’s rim - Fall from cup into room: If I must needs leap about to catch it Then the afternoon’s outlook will be dim. Window with a view over a garden, Preferably with a lawn and flowers; And let no one have to beg my pardon For trampling over the grass or bowers. Oh but the shape, the form, and sweet design, The delicate choice of the trees and blooms Must have good taste in texture and balance (Of necessity mine) So that the garden seen from all the rooms Will you at once delight and then entrance. When I’m fully tead and gazed-with-eyefuls Out come my guitar and harmonica. I make, with strings plucked and air in mouthfuls, Music and song from Spain or Africa. And when I strum and blow those melodies - Arpeggio, vamping, or free chording - They flow o’er the garden and teacup edge. They come about with ease - Great pleasure and delight affording The pansies, the heather, the rose, the sedge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Written by Sydney Peck Entered in Cyndi MacMillan’s Contest AN ODE TO SMALL COMFORTS ON A RAINY AFTERNOON