The Hive

Cherry

By onemorething

Wed, 24 Feb 2021
  • 3430 reads
18 comments
 

Don't tell bees about death, 

they are tired of learning

about the losses of others, weary

of the mythology of love.

And my veins do not flow with honey,

even in the sweeter months of Spring,

bruised and raised on March winds.

Even when columbine opens

its bells of violet, dark nightcaps

with spurs of nectar; cupped temptations

for monkish drones, blood brothers

of a swarm, in reveries 

of purpose and need.

It makes me wonder

what a solitary bee dreams of,

in cells cut into reed stems;

in partitions of sleep and refuge,

its only urge to breed. 

The work of life is in a colony -

life is nothing if not work, and

it is old, this labour of man and bee,

but I do not know

how many flowers a hive can hold. 
 
Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Honey_Please.jpg

And on Twitter: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:176_Aquilegia_vulgaris.jpg

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bee-keeper.jpg

Certificate U
Poem
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Comments

Submitted by marandina on

Bees are just wonderful aren't they? I just hope the decline in numbers starts to reverse. The world needs bees (wonderful, of course)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ah thanks Paul. Yes, I love bees. I have planted almost every plant in my garden to attract them and in the summer I lie out there on a bean bag and listen to them buzzing busily around me. I have sat out there with the odd bee or damselfly resting on me. I dread to think about their decline. It annoys me, and I think it must annoy bees too, for people to wax lyrical about them and then ignore their worsening demise. Thanks for reading it, happy you enjoyed it. :)

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Lovely poem. The bees must be tired of learning, especially burdening them with the saddest news. They seem to know so much about their jobs almost as soon as they emerge. I saw a large bee today in the glasshouse where I work, first one of the season. Moving colonies around for commercial pollination has caused so much damage by spreading disease but people like you make a huge difference to these most precious creatures.

 

Submitted by Ross_Lowe on

Smashing poem, this one. Well done.
Have you ever read any of the books by Robin Hobb? The final books of her series about Fitz feature a wonderful character called Bee, and the artwork for the book covers, by Jackie Morris, feature a solitary bee too. They're fabulous books.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Ross! I've not read any books by Robin Hobbs - will look her up - thanks for the tip. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

That's an interesting thought! Maybe it is the difference between human hermits and socialites? I wonder if soliary bees are mentally different from drones etc? Very different only to be responisible for yourself. Before the pandemic kept hearing how people were all going to end up in cities, and thought how aweful that would be, how impossible for some to survive in a hive like that.

I grow all bee flowers too :0) They have to be shadey ones though. Have you got woundwort? It is BRILLIANT if you have a shadey place.

Hope you are OK

ps I think Robin Hobb books are fab, too. Have you read Soldier's Son?

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Hi Di, oh yes, I'm sure they are very different. And agreed, I would not manage surrounded continuously by other bees, I need peace and quiet and space! I don't have any shadey places left, my garden is tiny and my shade is filled with ferns. I'm good, I hope you are too? Will definitely need to look into Robin Hobb now with two recommendations! :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

So glad you are OK :0) Bits of my garden even moss and ferns say it's too dark, am contemplating trying a mushroom farm

Ross is right, if you've not read any Robin Hobb yet, the Fitz ones should come first. I was so happy to find my sister in law liked the books, but she couldn't manage the Soldier Son ones and someone had suggested to her she might be too young, which I thought ws interesting. You come over as much younger than me, so save them up for a middle age treat :0)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh yes, mushrooms would be good. In my local farmers market there is a cellar underneath where someone grows mushrooms and sells them in the market. If you have a dark space, it's worth a try. I'm already well into middle age - I'm 48! I will definitely have a look for them. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I am longing to talk to someone about Soldier's Son :0) Be warned though, the Fitz books are impossible to put down, only start if you have a holiday. The trouble is after reading her books it is hard to stick to any others? Feel like a drug pusher going on about them to you..

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Have ordered book 1 of Fitz series - it does say as addictive as morphine on the cover! :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Does it? Though won't help you sleep at all, I kept finding it was getting light and the birds were singing :0) I wonder if it will change your poems? The editing is TERRIBLE, but it doesn't matter.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh, I don't know if it will change my poems...we'll have to see! 

 

Submitted by Ross_Lowe on

I'm sorry both – I've only just caught up on your conversation! Di is absolutely right, the books are wonderful and congrats on picking up Assassin's Apprentice. It starts a little slowly and then all of a sudden you're gripped. You have a beautiful journey ahead of you with those books – enjoy!

Di – can't say I noticed the editing problem but it's been 14 years since I first picked up Assassin's Apprentice, and I'm overdue a re-read. I've read them all from Fitz to the Live Ships, back to Fitz, the Rain Wilds and then back to Fitz and Bee. Rumour is circling that there's a new Bee book on the way...

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Well, I will update you both when I've finished it. :)

 

Submitted by Ross_Lowe on

Oh – and I haven't read Soldier's Son! My friend loaned it to me a year or so ago. He's a huge Robin Hobb fan but said he couldn't get into it.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Another book?!?!

I was into the fifties when read Soldier's Son. Am not at all sure could have stuck with the bleak side of it, nor been as uplifted by the philosophical (?) side of it before then?

I am sorry Onemorething to hijack your wonderful poem

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ha. You haven't hijacked it at all! :)