...quiet, about a lot of things...

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Beware Small Deaths for Poetry Thursday

Did you see this on the news?

Beware Small Deaths

A small thing,
honey bees
leaving

their Queen
abandoned
in her chamber
of thickening
wax.

Nectar less,
She doesn't know yet
that those workers
just aren't coming
back.

Perhaps she waits,
certain that heavy
pollen and bumper
crops have delayed
the return.


Yet vast fields,
still ripe with promise,
lay unattained
attracting no suitors.
Instead, the ground
is crunchy with carcasses
of the surrendered campaign.

There will be no
lovemaking of lilys.
No mating of plums.
The air is silently
sterile, no hummed
tension. Just baron
maidens left all
in a row.

.
Unafraid of sting
I steal out,
for one last flower
to press in a book.

I think of tea
searching for
the taste of
honey.

wlf


Happy Poetry Thursday.

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posted by wendy at 8:17 AM

22 Comments:

(Applause!!!!) Wendy - this is one of the best poems I've read in a while. I love everything about it. As I was reading I was hoping so bad that it would finish strong, and your ending exceeded all expectations. This is just sooooo goooooooood! I'm keeping it!

3/1/07, 11:55 AM  

Wonderful!!! I love all the visions this creates. The buzz fallen silent, the pollen laden plants waiting hopefully. All in vain, but life continues.

3/1/07, 12:06 PM  

Excellent poem, Wendy! Very clever and imaginative on so many levels. Bravo! xo

3/1/07, 1:01 PM  

You managed to make bees--a subject I really care nothing about--heartbreaking. In a good way. With a few deft words you made me care. Excellent.

3/1/07, 2:00 PM  

Wendy,
Such a parallel with humans, your poem exudes hope and loss with equal aplomb. Well done
rel

3/1/07, 2:31 PM  

WOW! This was so good and yet breaks my heart. I loved your human imagery.

3/1/07, 3:31 PM  

This was beautiful! I really like the thin form of your poems. I really liked the phrase small deaths too. I really, really liked this.

3/1/07, 5:24 PM  

An intriguing and creative take on the news story, good job. And, I think I understand the linking problem you are having. If you want help with it you can email me at mdmcculley at reachone dot com.

3/1/07, 5:52 PM  

i stopped by to see what you had to say about the bees! i'm glad i did: crunchy with carcasses, must remember honey. thanks for stopping by to see my thursday post.

3/1/07, 6:47 PM  

Mike Mc...Any tech support would be greaty helpful. i think I forgot the/dates/ thingie.

There has to be a better way than the one I'm failing at...

thanks for helpin a girl out!

did I mention, i spend big bucks to Appear to be a blonde?

thanks to all that slogged it out and found me anyways!

i LOOOVVEE Thursdays!

3/1/07, 6:51 PM  

Thsi was so full of emotion and heartbreak- and it was about bees! I was really moved! Thank you so much!

3/1/07, 6:58 PM  

This is beautiful and heartbreaking. What an ending....

3/2/07, 5:25 AM  

Thanks for stopping by and blushing. ;)

This is such a wonderful poem. The words and images of life and death. The cycle where all things are connected.

Rose

xo

3/2/07, 10:51 AM  

Ok, here's the deal. As you correctly surmised there were a few missing characters in the link. I find it essential for me to copy the link rather than try to enter it correctly. When the posting is displayed on the 'Home' page, right-click on the title at the top or the time at the bottom. 'Copy Shortcut' should be displayed in the popup menu, select it. Alternatively, navigate to the posting and the URL is displayed on the address bar, my address bar is just above the posting display. Single click on the URL to select it (when selected the whole URL is reverse video), Ctrl-C to copy. From there I don't go to the enter-a-comment-here screen but rather to an 'HTML' document I maintain that has all the 'angle bracket' code I need (I'd rather show you the code but this comment is an HTML page and would interpret it rather than show it). Working in that document also gives me access to all the word processing tools I'm used to, and a larger screen to work with. In that document I select a spot and then Ctrl-V to paste. Then I copy and paste the HTML code around the URL to create the permalink, build the comment around that, copy and paste back to the enter-a-comment-here screen. The only problem I've had with this process is getting an extra space in the code (e.g. href=" http), but that's easy to remedy.

The other situation is that your link displays the URL rather than some 'display text'. I can't show you the code in a comment but it's not difficult.

3/2/07, 11:34 AM  

This was simply a masterpiece. It seems effortlessly done yet it brings me there as if I was watching throught the entire poem. I love the line about adjusting her crown.

3/2/07, 3:00 PM  

excellent piece. One of the best on the blogs I've read for ages :)

btw, a 10 foot restraining order is no good, can easily get 'em at 10 foot :)

are they big enough to line boots?
as the gloves are taken care of...


(as a side note, we have to cats and a dog, so yours are safe really :) ... honest...)

3/3/07, 3:44 PM  

Nice poem, I really like these lines the best:

"and pick one last flower
to press in a book."

nice!

3/3/07, 6:07 PM  

My blogger has been so bad--wouldn;t let me comment. Seems to be working now. Just wanted you to know your poem is terrific!

3/3/07, 8:22 PM  

This is just lovely, lovely, lovely. Perfecto!

3/4/07, 6:36 AM  

Wendy, I just saw this on the NBC Nightly news, that Billions of bees are missing....scarey stuff. WHAT ARE WE DOING TO THE PLANET????

3/4/07, 5:48 PM  

...AND TO OURSELVES.

3/4/07, 5:50 PM  

As a woman approaching menopause, I keep thinking, the estrogen is leaving the building and life is not so sweet without honey.

3/6/07, 4:17 AM  

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