Featured Poetry

Swetha Amit – The Tea Prayer

Swetha Amit’s “The Tea Prayer” is a meditation on the routine and ritualistic simplicity of making and savoring a cup of hot green tea. Here at The Dewdrop, we are no strangers to ritual and meditative character of preparing tea, and we’ve published a handful of poems over the years that delve into that practice. Swetha’s poem, however, is among the more luscious and descriptive yet. “‘The Tea Prayer’ emerged from a ritual prompt at the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop, where we were asked to pick a mundane activity, and present it in a beautiful manner,” Swetha explained to The Dewdrop.


The Tea Prayer

To wake when all is quiet
before the electric bright
rays of dawn
seep in through the window

To enter the kitchen
grip the glass kettle
fill it with colorless liquid
watch it bubble on the stove

To clasp the green box
release a little tea bag
from the claustrophobic Matcha case
gently tear the upper section

To pour the steamy liquid
into an ice grey color mug
dip the padding of dried leaves
watch the water turn golden green

To smell the aroma
arouse your sensory nostrils
let the steam caress your face
when you close your eyes

To take a small sip
let your fiery tongue savor the taste
not so sweet not so bitter
before it slides down your throat

To clasp your palm around the mug
fingers locked in a tight embrace
a little pause, a little solitude
your lips locked at the brim of the mug

To continue this discipline
so invigorating, so ecstatic
almost like an orgasm
kickstarts your senses

every day it gets better and better
every day its harder to do without it.

Swetha Amit

Author of her memoir A Turbulent Mind-My Journey to Ironman 70.3, Swetha Amit is currently pursuing her MFA at University of San Francisco. She has published her works in Atticus Review, Oranges Journal, Gastropoda Lit, Amphora magazine, Grande Dame literary journal, Black Moon Magazine, Fauxmoir lit mag, Poets Choice anthology, JMWW journal and has upcoming pieces in Drunk Monkeys, Agapanthus Collective, Full House Literary, and The Creative Zine. She is one of the contest winners of Beyond Words literary magazine, her piece upcoming in November. She is also, alumni of Tin House Winter Workshop 2022 and the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop 2022.

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