Thursday, September 24, 2015

Mother Bee



Solitary mother bee, who strikes out on her own.
makes her nest so carefully,
sprinkles it tenderly with coloured blooms:
blue, purple, yellow, pink.
She carefully lays her precious egg
in its tender bed,
then flies away.

When born, her daughter will do the same-
beautify a blossomy nest,
then fly into the blue.

Imprinted in instinct and cellular memory,
is our inner drive to give and nurture life,
in whatever manner is modeled by
the matriarchs of our tribe.

My feet, since childhood, have been rooted in
family, the nurturing of children,
my own and others'.
My nest has stayed full of growing children, 
young adults, grandchildren, 
and now great-grandchildren,
and there has been laughter,
and much joy.

But my heart, through the years, 
has often contemplated the sky,
gazed beyond the distant horizon speculatively,
assessed the unknown landscape with longing.

Times, I felt the bones 
at the base of my wings
begin to lift,
my feathers begin to flutter,
just a little.

Omnia avosetta - the solitary mother bee constructs her beautiful intricate nest with varied hues of blooms and petals. She bites them from the flower, flies back to her nest, (a small indentation in the ground), and weaves the blooms, plasters them with mud, more petals, sets in provisions of water, and pollen, then places one precious egg carefully into the nest.  And then she flies away.

The egg later hatches, eats the food Mama Bee left, spins a cocoon arund herself, goes to sleep for  ten months, then awakens to weave her own beautifully coloured nest, in turn. Wow.

source: While Glaciers Slept, Being Human In a Time of Climate Change, by M. Jackson. A fantastic read.


5 comments:

  1. I feel the paradox/dilemma at the heart of love here. I envy you feeling the bony beginning of wings and kinship with the birds and bees. Oh to be a bee?!! But often human mothers, like the birds, call it a day and kick the babies out after they learn to fly. Would you be willing?

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  2. Oh, Sherry!! Amazing and I love the way you made taking to blue and the calling of flight your own as well as the family part...what a beautiful poem for these bees...thank you!!

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  3. Love all of these, Sherry--especially the first one. I want to be by a window, if not out in nature!

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  4. What a wonderful nest she spins.. that is what a nurturing mother should do.

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  5. You have always kept a welcoming nest, Sherry!

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