Haibun: Bees
“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.” Emily Dickinson
I began keeping bees last year. I wanted to be sure because it is quite a commitment. I have one hive but it is a busy one! A typical hive takes visiting about two million flowers a season to produce one pound of honey. I often sit on my back steps watching them going back and forth, in and out of flowers. I keep clover blooming from late winter to late autumn. It is a labor of love with me. Listening to their somnolent hum, their burying themselves in flowers and coming out covered with pollen. Interestingly, they do not destroy their source of pollen as humans destroy their source of anything in the natural world. And I must confess, I am allergic to bee stings!
bee staggers drunk –
sipped sweetness day long
and slept well all night
kanzen sakura 
Apr 24, 2019 @ 14:20:38
I’ve often thought it would be cool to keep bees, but I don’t have that kind of commitment. I’m glad you do.
Apr 24, 2019 @ 14:22:11
It is like marriage or a child. I don’t have cats anymore because they cause so much pain when they die. I expect to get honey this year!!!!! My own honey.
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Apr 24, 2019 @ 15:33:36
I buy local honey. They sell it at our library, so we call it library honey. 🙂
Apr 24, 2019 @ 16:06:51
I love it
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Apr 24, 2019 @ 14:26:05
How wonderful you tend a home for bees, as they are endangered now. Your commitment even the more inspiring, given you are allergic to stings. I think your good energy will protect you. I love everything about this poem, and your bee village.
Apr 24, 2019 @ 15:03:42
You are amazing, Toni! You are so committed to your garden, cooking, the homeless (among other things), and now bees! I hope you get a bumper hive of honey – and no stings!
Apr 24, 2019 @ 16:08:41
Lol. I hope I don’t get stung either. I wear all white and shower before O tend to them. My uncle kept bees years ago. He has TWENTY hives. I learned from him.
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Apr 24, 2019 @ 15:29:14
It takes a lot of guts to look after bees! I was surprised to learn that it takes visiting about two million flowers a season to produce one pound of honey!
Apr 24, 2019 @ 18:20:42
Love honey… admire your skill with the bees. They are single-minded and busy.
Apr 24, 2019 @ 19:29:31
How wonderful…Thank you for your work with bees. We need more like you. Oh if we humans wouldn’t destroy to gain.
Apr 25, 2019 @ 02:14:23
Thank you from me on behalf of the whole world (much of which is oblivious of the importance of what you do – but I am not.) A true commitment considering your allergy. And it was a lovely read.
Apr 25, 2019 @ 16:45:47
What a wonderful thing to have… and the world need more bees…
Apr 25, 2019 @ 16:56:44
Yes. If bees de we have at most 4 years of life.
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Apr 26, 2019 @ 13:24:56
This was a great post about a very important fellow passenger here on spaceship earth we need to protect these little dudes. Great haibun and excellent haikunding! You are rave Toni, especially being allergic to their sting. I remenber running through the clover as a child, stepping on a bee, and my foot itching like crazy from the sting…
Apr 26, 2019 @ 13:51:30
Thanks Rob. My uncle kept bees years ago. He akways showered before he tended his bees and always wore white. I do the same. They fly past me and sometimes on me. I slow my breathing and think calm. So far so good. I always have my epipen in my picket the cell on 911 so I can hit it. But they like me I think. I love them.
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