6.2.13

Petrarch



poem AF, photograph LF, 2012


in Petrarch’s garden, after EP

   let no man
   hurt this tree
   that gave shade
   to the poet :

   rest in his
      shadow


When I have the opportunity, I give a poem-label to a friend who is traveling, or sometimes I post them to friends overseas.

Lisa Jarnot’s biography of Robert Duncan persuaded me to go back to Pound’s Cantos; from there a phrase offered itself as a verse, which I give to Linda France, who was visiting gardens in Italy. When she told me these would include the garden at Petrarch's house in the Euganean Hills, I asked her to find a shady tree for this poem.

In Linda's latest post she has reached Singapore Botanic Gardens, where she is reminded that the word Zing comes from the botanical name for the Ginger family – Zingiberaceae – and that oppressive heat gives trees a use we sometimes forget in northerly climes.


   trees are
   for shade
   
   respite from
   the sun’s glare


I’ve written elsewhere about the shady bower I will make in Duke’s Wood. For now, staying with the poetic project that puts folds in the head, some more Petrarch. 


CCCX

Zephiro torna, e ’l bel tempo rimena,
e i fiori et l’erbe, sua dolce famiglia,
et garrir Progne et pianger Philomena,
et primavera candida et vermiglia.

Ridono i prati, e ’l ciel si rasserena;
Giove s’allegra di mirar sua figlia;
l’aria et l’acqua et la terra è d’amor piena;
ogni animal d’amar si riconsiglia.

Ma per me, lasso, tornano i piú gravi
sospiri, che del cor profondo tragge
quella ch’al ciel se ne portò le chiavi;

et cantar augelletti, et fiorir piagge,
e ’n belle donne honeste atti soavi
sono un deserto, et fere aspre et selvagge.


Tim Atkins’s wordly-sigh is faithless to the same poem; Tim has shade, stretching into the suburbs & Odeons, but he does not rest in shadow. His Horace and Petrarch are, to me, most vibrant poems of now.


CCCX

It was the golden age of homosexuality 
Chairman Mao taking the buffaloes for a stroll
        in the tea-oil camellia groves by banana
        leaf-shade ponds between Heathrow & Slough
Creatures of the sun-loving world       vs
        the pale less resistant ones
Avatars of insufficient definition or
        relation     dressed in animal bird or cowboy forms
Head filled with poem until it was almost
        impossible not to trip over them     for example
Petrarch’s shift between       need to write
        fame       and singular woman
Alas!     My   Place   Is 
With
This     Fuck in this life
Surprise is all I have
I never learned
To turn quickly enough from
All that burns
Feeling each other up and liking each other
        terrifically all the way home from the Odeon


(Crater #6)


To close, another writer’s garden: among the apples at Shandy Hall, Alison Lloyd tied this poem for me, after Sterne.




poem AF, photograph AL, Shandy Hall, 2011


   Shandy’s
   apples

   fall by
   the clock




two wishes







two wishes for 2013

AF & HT







new bee poems


The Bee Library, Cockatoo Island, 18th Biennale of Sydney, 2012


Recently I've been working on poems for new bee libraries which will be installed at locations in England & Scotland. Reading between the books it is interesting to see how different authors define common apicultural terms, and the social or political commentary freighted within these. 

This sequence of one-word poems unfolds some of the definitions. There is more information about the project on the main bee bole site.



WINGED-ATOM

bee


Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee



OUR MOTHER
THE QUEEN

bienenkönigin



QUEEN-RIGHT

lay


W. Eric Kelsey, The Spell of the Honey-Bee

bienenkönigin, Ger. ‘mother-bee'; Queen-right
Norfolk expression for a queen laying eggs



THE BEE'S
WEE HAMPER

corbicula


T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

corbicula, basket formed from the tibia
for carrying propolis and pollen



SINGING-CLOUD

swarm


Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee



THE OLD QUEEN
WITH THE SWARM
IN THE REAR

cast



BLUE-BLOODS

nymphs



FANFARE FOR
THE EIGHTH DAY

piping



CHAIN-GANG

festoon


Frank R. Cheshire, Bees & Beekeeping, Vol. 1

Listen to a hive on the evening of the 8th day
after a swarming and the new queens will be heard ‘piping’;
a ‘cast’ swarm leaves the hive with the old queen. 
Place bees in an empty hive and they will form chains,
or festoons, to produce wax and make comb



WEATHER-SHELTER

bole


Courtney Dainton, Clock Jacks & Bee Boles



MIDWAY BETWEEN
HIVE & HOLLOW

skep


A. M. Foster, Bee Boles and Bee Houses



CARR

pagoda



NATIONAL

crate


Andrew Davies, Beekeeping



MIND

hive


Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee



A SENSE
OF DECISION

buzz



TAKEN WITH
GERMANIC PRECISION

schwirrlauf


Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Democracy

schwirrlauf, whirring dance
performed by worker bees, to initiate swarming



THE JOYFUL HUM 
LUST! LUFT! LIFE!

shiusi- shiusi-shiusi!



T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

Cowan quotes Stahala’s translation of the calls of bees;
the swarm emits a ‘shiusi’ as they first emerge from the hive,
also known as “the joyful hum”



THE FAMILIAR PATH

memory


Julien Francon, The Mind of the Bees



THROBBING STREAM
OF GOLDEN HAIL

swarm


Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee



(CCD)
A SIGN AMONG
THE ALMOND TREES

bee-
drop


Benjamin & McCallum, A World Without Bees



CURE

balm


H. Malcolm Fraser, Beekeeping in Antiquity

Pliny: smearing lemon balm arrests the bees’ desertion




BRUDERLY-ATTACHMENT

heftzellen


T. W. Cowan, The Honey Bee

heftzellen, cells at the top and sides of a comb
where it is affixed to the wooden frame



SALT-HONEY

butes


Robert Graves, The White Goddess

Butes, the renowned bee-keeper of antiquity
sailed with the Argonauts



BAND

bee



MYTH

moth



LEMNISCATE

8



CACHE

ash



PEONY

peenie


(after Roderick Watson)