Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon tea break with our Afternoon Tea curators.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Clare Siobhan.
Clare Siobhan (shuh-VON), is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Truro, Nova Scotia who is making a home for herself in that cozy little intersection of folk, pop, and soul. Her layered harmonies paired with bright piano and ukulele lay the foundation for warm vocals that touch on connection, relationships, worry, and that age-old search for meaning and belonging that we feel as we grow.
After receiving some unexpected and scary news, Siobhan wrote most of the lyrics for the song “Flare” on the drive home, taking voice memos in between tears. It was a few weeks later when she finally wrote the last part of the song, the U-turn where she was able to find joy when there’s big changes happening in life.
Stream + share “Flare” now:
[When I was writing this song,] I looked out my window at the tree in my backyard and thought about the changing of the seasons… life goes on. There’s this inevitability to change, and such stability in its repetition, and that was a comfort to me at the time. After that, finishing the song was easy – and to be honest, so was adjusting to the new change in my own life.
The Art: the lesson of the moth – Don Marquis [link]
the lesson of the moth by archy (a poem by Don Marquis)
(The character of Archy, created by Don Marquis in 1916, was a cockroach who had been a poet in a previous incarnation. To write he must leap headfirst onto the keys of a typewriter, and thus is unable to capitalize his letters.)
i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires
why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense
plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then to cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is to come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves
and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity
but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself
archy
I first encountered this poem as a little girl, actually: my Dad used to read us poetry growing up. He had two Garrison Keillor poetry anthologies, Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times; I think this poem was in the second one. As a kid, this poem really imprinted itself into my brain, and I was absolutely enamoured with its message. The idea of wanting true, beautiful joy so badly that you’re willing to do whatever it takes, suffering be damned, was fascinating to me. (Note: I’m a strong believer in introducing kids to great poetry early and often; it definitely changed my life for the better.) But the theme of the poem isn’t ambition, or it isn’t for me, anyway. It’s yearning and aching for joy and pursuing it relentlessly, no matter the cost. It’s making sure you’re present in the moment and willing to seek happiness in the monotony and suffering that can surround us on Wednesday mornings and Thursday nights and standing sardine-packed on the bus during your commute. It’s the constant reminder to live actively, to seek and find, rather than to simply let life happen to you. That whole thing is definitely something I’ve been searching for – possibly since the age of seven – and I think lately I’ve been getting closer to finding it.
Honorable mentions:
The Orange – Wendy Cope
[in Just-] – e.e. Cummings
The Music: The Age of Worry – Madison Cunningham [link]
I just learned while choosing this song that it’s actually a John Mayer cover – Madison Cunningham does such an incredible job on it that I’d just been assuming it was an original. It’s so simple, just guitar and vocal, but she plays this tune so masterfully that I can’t stop listening to it. The lyrics, Mayer’s, carry a message that really resonates with me – the best way out is to go through, to feel your feelings, to hold everything that’s coming to you, and then to not give in to a single extra second that sadness demands of you. Embrace pain when you can and let it move through you for exactly the amount of time it deserves, and not a moment longer. You’ll fail and you’ll hurt and you’ll miss opportunities, and you’ll break and you’ll mend and you’ll start again, and you’ll repeat it over and over and over because that’s what living is. This song breathes authenticity, begging the listener to embrace where and who they are in the present moment rather than reaching for an unattainable future self that simply hasn’t arrived yet. As someone in my early-ish twenties, of course, I can’t stop listening.
Honorable Mentions:
Be the Wheel – Theo Katzman
Wondering Where the Lions Are – Bruce Cockburn
The Tea: Vanilla Red Rooibos tea, decaffeinated
This is my go-to tea, even more so now that the summer in England has been chilly so far. I steep for “six minutes, no more, no less;” a tip I learned from my Mom, who learned it from the evil witch in the Barbie Rapunzel movie one day when I was watching it – surprisingly, it’s a perfect length of time to steep tea, and we’ve stuck by it since then. Then, I add whatever milk I have on hand, which lately has been oat milk. Have whatever snack you like as you read and listen; my recent go-tos have been bite-sized cherry Bakewell tarts and cheap pastries from the Lidl down the road. Living in London this summer, I’m trying to get the full European experience while I’m here. Drink it hot, or do what I do: take two sips, get way too into what you’re doing, and remember it, cold, an hour later. (Don’t worry, though – it reheats well.)
Tea + Me 