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Posts Tagged ‘bees’

Blessing for Those Who Are Willing to Be Vulnerable

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 8, 2026| 6 Comments »


                  with gratefulness for all the bees
 
 
When you are soft, when you lay bare
your innerness and unfold your layers
for the world like a voluptuous, purpling
O’Keefe iris, it is true, there will be some 
so threatened by your opening they will attack, 
will sow fear and hatred into the warm field
of the gentle night. When it happens, may you 
be surprised by how others rise to protect you
like a humming, swarming swirl of bees 
that baptize the air with a wild and fierce 
aliveness, a rousing acrobatic vocalizing 
that shields you from that which would trample 
you or cut you down. May you be astonished
by the power of the hive as they surround you. 
Even as fear ripples through you, may you 
be so enthralled by the buzz of their joy 
that you don’t snap shut like a fist, like a trap.
And in honor of the gift you’ve received,
the gift of belonging, may you stay open. 
May you be so stunned with gratefulness 
that every word that falls from your mouth 
tastes of truth, raw praise and dark, secret honey.
 

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While Listening to Others Talk about Poems in Small Groups

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 7, 2026| 6 Comments »


 
 
Their voices sound
like giddy bees
as phrases swirl
and interweave
and poems open
like peonies—
a hush comes in
like a gentle breeze
as their wonder lands,
wades deeper in
to gather any gold
that sticks,
and though I cannot
hear what any
one voice is saying,
I taste with ears
inside the buzz
all the glorious makings
of honey.

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Eyesight

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 21, 2025| 9 Comments »

 
I’ve never seen the world the bee sees,
a world of iridescence in which petals
change color depending on the angle,
a world in which a field of sunflowers appear
not as a smear of yellow but as individual
blooms. I’ve never seen the bullseye
pattern in the primrose or the pansy,
these human eyes unable to perceive
designs in UV light. Today I look out
at the empty garden where just last week
there were marigolds and calendula,
and I see the absence of flowers, but also,
I see mounds of golds, yellows, oranges, and
I see the boy who used to sit on the edge
of the wooden beds and I see the young
version of me, not yet gray, weeding
the rows, while the boy tells me stories
about school and the things he longs
for beyond what he has. They’re there,
I know, the flowers, the woman,
the boy, though somehow they’re so far
beyond the spectrum not even
the bees can see them.

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What We Sow

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 31, 2024| 8 Comments »


 
 
More than twenty years ago,
I planted several wild iris beside the pond.
Today, I sit beside a generous patch
of fluttering blue flags and watch
a gold-dusted bumblebee clumsily
swerve from bloom to bloom to bloom.
Such joy they bring, these wild iris that rise
and multiply every spring. They remind me of how
kindness, too, is rhizomic, how
years ago you planted in me
something beautiful before you left.
If you came again to my shores,
would you be surprised to see
how your kindness continues to spread?

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Navigation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 22, 2021| 1 Comment »




Abducted, drugged and left
abandoned in a field, a bee
will still discover a way back
to its hive. Though day is night
and night is day, though
anesthetized, disrupted,
foggy, dazed,
the faithful bee returns.
Is it any wonder then,
the heart with its
ecstatic buzz, though dissuaded
by time, discouraged by
loss, deterred by neglect
or rejection, still manages
to navigate its way home?
Sometimes I feel it—
its beat, like the flutter
of wings, saying trust me,
I’ll lead you, finding home
is what I do best,
though the field is unfamiliar,
though I have
lost the path.  

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