new bee poems

The Bee Library, Cockatoo Island, 18th Biennale of Sydney, 2012

Recently I've been working on poems for new bee libraries which will be installed at locations in England & Scotland. Reading between the books it is interesting to see how different authors define common apicultural terms, and the social or political commentary freighted within these. 

This sequence of one-word poems unfolds some of the definitions. There is more information about the project on the main bee bole site.

WINGED-ATOM

bee

Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee

OUR MOTHER

THE QUEEN

bienenkönigin

QUEEN-RIGHT

lay

W. Eric Kelsey, The Spell of the Honey-Bee

bienenkönigin, Ger. ‘mother-bee'; Queen-right

Norfolk expression for a queen laying eggs

THE BEE'S

WEE HAMPER

corbicula

T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

corbicula, basket formed from the tibia

for carrying propolis and pollen

SINGING-CLOUD

swarm

Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee

THE OLD QUEEN

WITH THE SWARM

IN THE REAR

cast

BLUE-BLOODS

nymphs

FANFARE FOR

THE EIGHTH DAY

piping

CHAIN-GANG

festoon

Frank R. Cheshire, Bees & Beekeeping, Vol. 1

Listen to a hive on the evening of the 8^th day

after a swarming and the new queens will be heard ‘piping’;

a ‘cast’ swarm leaves the hive with the old queen. 

Place bees in an empty hive and they will form chains,

or festoons, to produce wax and make comb

WEATHER-SHELTER

bole

Courtney Dainton, Clock Jacks & Bee Boles

MIDWAY BETWEEN

HIVE & HOLLOW

skep

A. M. Foster, Bee Boles and Bee Houses

CARR

pagoda

NATIONAL

crate

Andrew Davies, Beekeeping

MIND

hive

Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee

A SENSE

OF DECISION

buzz

TAKEN WITH

GERMANIC PRECISION

schwirrlauf

Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Democracy

schwirrlauf, whirring dance

performed by worker bees, to initiate swarming

THE JOYFUL HUM 

LUST! LUFT! LIFE!

shiusi- shiusi-shiusi!

T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

Cowan quotes Stahala’s translation of the calls of bees;

the swarm emits a ‘shiusi’ as they first emerge from the hive,

also known as “the joyful hum”

THE FAMILIAR PATH

memory

Julien Francon, The Mind of the Bees

THROBBING STREAM

OF GOLDEN HAIL

swarm

Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee

(CCD)

A SIGN AMONG

THE ALMOND TREES

bee-

drop

Benjamin & McCallum, A World Without Bees

CURE

balm

H. Malcolm Fraser, Beekeeping in Antiquity

Pliny: smearing lemon balm arrests the bees’ desertion

BRUDERLY-ATTACHMENT

heftzellen

T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

heftzellen, cells at the top and sides of a comb

where it is affixed to the wooden frame

SALT-HONEY

butes

Robert Graves, The White Goddess

Butes, the renowned bee-keeper of antiquity

sailed with the Argonauts

BAND

bee

MYTH

moth

LEMNISCATE

8

CACHE

ash

PEONY

peenie

(after Roderick Watson)