Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Honey / Bee

 

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”— Robert Green Ingersoll

Mesolithic rock painting of a honey hunter harvesting honey and wax from a bees nest in a tree. At Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp. (Dating around 8000 to 6000 BC)

“Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt – marvelous error! – that I had a bee hive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.”— Antonio Machado

Midweek Motif ~ Honey / Bee

Recently I read a beautiful poem, 'Where Honey Comes From' by Maggie Smith and Honey/Bee– motif for our poets came instantly.

With honey and bee humans have been having a pretty long hunter-hunted relationship. Is it the same today or has it changed? Let your words buzz.

Your words may be connected to the sweet, sticky fluid that bees make from nectar; to the bee itself; to the flower, storehouse of the nectar; to the honeycomb or even to the deadly humans for we must not forget we are facing bee-loss globally in an increasing rate; among other factors human factor is one that has contributed to this sharp decline. However honey bee is not on the endangered species list yet.

Sharing some honey / bee poems here:

Fame Is A Bee

by Emily Dickinson

Fame is a bee.

It has a song—

It has a sting—

Ah, too, it has a wing.

A Bee

by Matsuo Basho

A bee

staggers out

of the peony

Bees

by Norman Rowland Gale

You voluble,
Velvety
Vehement fellows
That play on your
Flying and
Musical cellos,
All goldenly
Girdled you
Senerade clover,
Each artist in
Bass but a
Bibulous rover!

You passionate,
Powdery
Pastoral bandits,
Who gave you your
Roaming and
Rollicking mandates?
Come out of my
Foxglove; come
Out of my roses
You bees with the
Plushy and
Plausible noses!

An extract from Kahlil Gibran’s Prophet :

                       And now you ask in your heart,
"How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from

                that which is not good?"
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is

            the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the

                       bee.
             For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
     And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
  And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of  

                    pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the        bees.

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

(Next week Susan’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Truth / in honor of Gandhi)