Tea & Poetry brightens a cloudy day

Folks blended their own herbal teas, read haiku onstage, and taste-tested chai at Sisters Farmers Market last Sunday, the second-till-last market of the 2019 season. Krayna Castelbaum led a “poetry playshop,” and winners of the Food & Farms Haiku Contest were announced. The judge was the State of Oregon’s official poet laureate, Kim

Stafford.

Deschutes Public Library set up a poetry activity booth where kids wrote poems on paper leaves. Sisters Ukulele Group sang and played throughout the day, including a rousing set on the main stage, their setlist roaming from island songs to “Country Roads.”

Mountain Rose Herbs of Eugene donated plentiful materials including echinacea, rooibos, and rosebuds so that marketgoers could mix up their own teas. Market volunteer Susan Prince helped folks find herbs, fill in labels, and make a customized herbal blend to take home and enjoy over the long winter.

During their tea-blending experience, participants could listen to haiku being read aloud or learn about the medicinal qualities and history of the herbs on offer. The activity was inspired by local resident Katie Diez, who could not be present this weekend.

Krayna Castelbaum calls herself a “creativity instigator.” She shared her talent free of charge at Tea & Poetry. In her monthly playshops in Bend, Castelbaum doesn’t approach writing from a precious or academic viewpoint. On the contrary, she said, “I try to help people relax.

“If you’re pulling up a vegetable from the ground, there’s the roots, there’s all the dirt hanging off the roots,” she explained in an appropriate metaphor for the occasion. The writing that emerges in her gatherings is “your first impulse. Maybe it is finished, but it’s not a product.” Poignant, authentic writing often results.

The playshop took place on the Songbird Stage, framed by a festive, white Poetry Umbrella (courtesy of Kit Stafford). Participants sat in a circle and worked together to create group poems in the Surrealist style.

In these writing and art games, known as “exquisite corpses,” each creator only sees a fragment of what others are writing or making, until the very end. Laughter erupted as Castelbaum read the resulting poems aloud; some were surprisingly coherent and interesting, with emotional and narrative arcs.

Each participant also wrote a nine-line “snowball” poem with Castelbaum’s prompting, then shared these aloud. The optional theme was clouds, inspired by the coiling, rolling sky of gray that moved eastward all day, sometimes bringing showers.

Co-presented by New Oregon Arts & Letters, the Food & Farms Haiku Contest drew entries from around Oregon and out of state, with plenty of locals represented as well. Several entrants, including three winners in the Youth category, read their poems onstage. The winning haiku will be published in The Nugget Newspaper beginning in next week’s issue.

Local businesses donated generously to Tea & Poetry. Prizes included gift cards to Bedouin clothing store, Suttle Tea teahouse, Jackson’s Corner restaurant, and Paulina Springs Books. Market vendors were generous, too, donating homemade pickles, Metolius Artisan Tea chai, Sisters Farmers Market totes, and gift certificates to local farms Seed to Table and Mahonia Gardens.

Sisters Farmers Market takes place every Sunday through the end of September, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Fir Street Park. Special programs like Tea & Poetry are funded in part by grants from the City of Sisters and The Roundhouse Foundation.