Years ago, my company hired an expert on bees. Concern had been expressed about one of our product’s effect on bees and bee colony collapse was a general issue. I spent considerable time with this expert on work projects, and I learned, among many other things, that honeybees came from Europe, that Missouri is home to some 75 different kinds of bees, that most bees live in the ground, that commercial beekeepers transport hives for pollination of crops like almonds in California, and what I should plant in my home garden that bees would like.
Our beekeeper expert became a good friend. And I was inspired to plant Monarda, commonly known as bee balm. It’s a member of the mint family, and it spreads like mint, so you have to manage it. And I found myself spending considerable time watching it attract bees – four different kinds, in fact, two of which were easy to identify – bumble bees and honeybees. The other two were small, almost tiny, and you had to get close to see that they were indeed bees, not gnats.
The Honey Field by Laura Boggess is about bees, too, but it’s also about much more. Of novella-like length, it’s a story of death and grief, illness and healing, and life and love. And food, including a few recipes. And bees, honeybees to be precise, occupying several hives in a semi-rural area.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
“Hyla Brook” by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Wordsworth’s “Excursion”: 1 and Wordsworth’s “Excursion” 2: The Ruined Cottage – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook.
Reaching for Something Beyond: Father Ian Ker and The Catholic Revival in English Literature 1845-1961 – Dermot Quinn at The Imaginative Conservative.
A pair of sonnets for St. John the Baptist – Malcolm Guite.
The Poetry Club: Bookmark It – Tweetspeak Poetry.
I Shall Return – poem by Claude McKay at Every Day Poems.
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