Day 22: Bees

 

Today, a lovely sunny summer's day. And here's a poem  to remind you about the vital importance of bees. 

But what's even more striking about this poem by Carol Ann Duffy is its flowing rhythm. It's almost like a love poem written in praise of bees and their work. 

Read it and delight in its sweet nectar-filled language.

Virgil's Bees - Carol Ann Duffy

Bless air's gift of sweetness, honey
from the bees, inspired by clover,
marigold, eucalyptus, thyme,
the hundred perfumes of the wind.
Bless the beekeeper

                             who chooses for her hives
a site near water, violet beds, no yew,
no echo. Let the light lilt, leak, green
or gold, pigment for queens,
and joy be inexplicable but there
in harmony of willowherb and stream,
of summer heat and breeze,
                                            each bee's body
at its brilliant flower, lover-stunned,
strumming on fragrance, smitten.

                                                  For this,
let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.