Bee People

By Chris Slade

This slim volume of poems is titled as it is because partly it is about people I have met as a beekeeper and partly because, when I write about bees, I do so rather anthropomorphically, treating them as if people. Many of the poems are about people and incidents in Ireland. Annually I attend the Federatio

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Sladea
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781838264710

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Chris Slade

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ISBN: 978-1-8382647-0-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-8382647-1-0 (e)

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Proem

This slim volume of poems is titled as it is because partly it is about people I have met as a beekeeper and partly because, when I write about bees, I do so rather anthropomorphically, treating them as if people.

Many of the poems are about people and incidents in Ireland. Annually I attend the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations’ Summer School, held at Gormanston College about 20 miles north of Dublin. These poems and others about people are in the front of the book; those about bees and the way they work come later. Last is a marathon that should not be read by those of a sensitive or squeamish disposition!

A couple of the poems have been published elsewhere and I was encouraged to write the second poem, a hymn, by a Sister of Mercy, Dolores McCann. It was first sung in public, not at Mass as intended, but at 3am in the local pub by Claire Kehoe, then Irish Honey Queen, and her sister Miriam! I was asked to recite The Invitation at Mary Cake’s funeral.

Read, sing along and enjoy!

Chris Slade

Contents

Bees vs People 

The Chapel at Gormanston 

The Lord’s My Beekeeper 

On Holding Hands with a Nun 

Sister of Mercy 

Gormanston College 

Gormanston 2004 

Paddy Cullen’s Bar on Apimondia Tuesday 

Odd B o’D 

Ross Young 

The Invitation 

My First Bee Tour 

Slovenian Bee Tour 

My Second Bee Tour 

Portuguese Bee Tour 

Sophists And Charlatans 

A Sonnet for Ruth 

‘Stands the Church Clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?’ 

Pearls Before Swine 

Beekeeping for Old Pagans 

Conversation with a Queen Bee 

A Cock-Eyed View 

The Queen Excluder 

That couch again! 

Withdrawn 

Vanessa At 40! 

Workers Rule 

The Cell 

The Queen: Two Sonnets 

The Queen’s Complaint 

Mother’s Day 

Drone 

Stumped! 

Bees vs People

We all know local bees