Bees
That the bees were born in the corpse of the injured animal.
That the bees came forth out of the corrupted flesh.
That a small room was chosen, made narrow just for this,
and the animal was led beneath the low roof and cramped walls
and that the four winds came through the four windows
and that the morning fell upon the small
and heavy head, its horns curving out
from the whorled medallion of the forehead.
That the hot nostrils and the breathing mouth were stopped
and the flesh was beaten, pounded to a pulp,
beneath the unbroken hide.
He lies on his side on the broken apple-boughs. He lies on a bed
of fragrant thyme and the cassia is laid in sprays about him
and the sweetness of the fields surrounds him.
Do this when the west winds blow. Do this when the meadows
are alive with poppies. Do this when the swallow hangs her pendulous
nest and the dew is warm and the days grow long.
And all the living fluids will swirl within the hide, and the bones
will dissolve like bread in water.
And a being will be born, and another, and then a thousand
and a thousand thousand swarming without limbs or form.
And that the wings will grow from atoms. And that the stirring wings
will find their way into the air. And that a thousand stirring wings
will come forth into the day like a storm of arrows made of wind
and light. And the flesh will fall back into the earth, and the horror
into sweetness and the dark into the sun and the bees
thus born.
—Virgil, Georgics, Book IV.281-314
Feature Date
- February 21, 2022
Series
- What Sparks Poetry
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“Bees” from Cinder: New and Selected Poems.
Copyright © 2017 by Susan Stewart.
Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cinder: New and Selected Poems gathers poetry from across Susan Stewart’s career, including many extraordinary new poems. From brief songs to longer meditative sequences, and always with formal innovation and exquisite precision, Stewart evokes the innocence of childhood, the endangered mysteries of the natural world, and deeply felt perceptions, both acute and shared…. Reading across this retrospective collection is a singular experience of seeing the unfolding development of one of the most ingenious and moving lyric writers in contemporary poetry.
“Cinder brings together the best writing from this singular poet, who masterfully explores the intersection of language, the external world, and human consciousness…. Always she demonstrates the richness and fluidity of thought.”
—The Washington Post
“Stewart writes the kind of poem, virtuosic and illuminating, that goes on giving warmth and light long after the proverbial switch has been flipped off.”
—The American Poetry Review
“Susan Stewart’s achievement, in a career spanning almost forty years and showcased in Cinder: New and Selected Poems, is remarkable… Her aim has always been to uncover the hidden narrative buried beneath the narrative of the everyday. What Stewart accomplishes is nothing less than the reenchantment of the world.”
—John Koethe
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
