For Poetry Day - Virgil's Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
In December world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to try to reach a global deal to tackle climate change. To support the launch of the Climate Change10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions, the Guardian Review asked some of our greatest artists, authors and poets to produce new work in response to the crisis. Below is Carol Ann Duffy's piece.
Virgil’s Bees
Bless air's gift of sweetness, honey
from the bees, inspired by clover,
marigold, eucalyptus, thyme,
the hundred perfumes of the wind.
Bless the beekeeper
who chooses for her hives
a site near water, violet beds, no yew,
no echo. Let the light lilt, leak, green
or gold, pigment for queens,
and joy be inexplicable but there
in harmony of willowherb and stream,
of summer heat and breeze,
each bee's body
at its brilliant flower, lover-stunned,
strumming on fragrance, smitten.
For this,
let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.
by Carol Ann Duffy
Extract from Guardian 26th September 2009
