Singing Bees
Singing Bees
I hear the singing bees in the nite
outside my window,
singing their prayers
after the labor of the day.
I hear them singing in their hive,
singing about life and
I hear them singing on this side of the wall
not concearned at all with the other life
outside.
outside my window,
singing their prayers
after the labor of the day.
I hear them singing in their hive,
singing about life and
I hear them singing on this side of the wall
not concearned at all with the other life
outside.
Re: Singing Bees
hello there, Lord of the Bees.
Do you know much about bee behaviour? It seems you're learning, and it seems you'll be learning more than you ever thought. What an unusual position you're to be given. I once learned how to interpret their dance, but I don't know if I can remember. Honeybees dance in a figure-eight, an infinity symbol. They dance to tell each other where the food is. If you draw a line down the length of the figure, you'll make an angle between the line you draw and the straight part of the figure. This represents to bees the angle between the sun and the food source, with the hive represented as the point where all those lines intersect. The size of the figure that the bee makes is proportional to the distance that the food source is, and how much the bee buzzes her wings and is generally excited represents the value of the food source. A better food source means the bee will dance more excitedly. If I remembered it all correctly.
I like what you've done with this poem, and knowing about your situation and your recent experience/dream which I don't really understand makes me read into it. It seems like your walls and their hive turned out to be the same thing.
Do you know much about bee behaviour? It seems you're learning, and it seems you'll be learning more than you ever thought. What an unusual position you're to be given. I once learned how to interpret their dance, but I don't know if I can remember. Honeybees dance in a figure-eight, an infinity symbol. They dance to tell each other where the food is. If you draw a line down the length of the figure, you'll make an angle between the line you draw and the straight part of the figure. This represents to bees the angle between the sun and the food source, with the hive represented as the point where all those lines intersect. The size of the figure that the bee makes is proportional to the distance that the food source is, and how much the bee buzzes her wings and is generally excited represents the value of the food source. A better food source means the bee will dance more excitedly. If I remembered it all correctly.
I like what you've done with this poem, and knowing about your situation and your recent experience/dream which I don't really understand makes me read into it. It seems like your walls and their hive turned out to be the same thing.
Re: Singing Bees
Thank you freind.
Tomorrow I will read your words to the bees.
Then they will know what to do .
Tomorrow I will read your words to the bees.
Then they will know what to do .
Re: Singing Bees
......ummm, don't they already know?
- blonde madonna
- Posts: 984
- Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:27 am
Re: Singing Bees
Hi Manna
I loved your beautiful bee fact/story. I once kept an ant colony. I was fascinated by the elaborate social structures, the way various activities were divided among different ants. I remember watching them for what seemed like hours but was probably a lot less.
I have read somewhere recently that Fire Ants have an internal "compass" created by eating tiny bits of a mineral called magnetite that allows them to navigate in the dark. They are invading Queensland as we speak, potentially the biggest ecological disaster since the rabbits.

I loved your beautiful bee fact/story. I once kept an ant colony. I was fascinated by the elaborate social structures, the way various activities were divided among different ants. I remember watching them for what seemed like hours but was probably a lot less.
I have read somewhere recently that Fire Ants have an internal "compass" created by eating tiny bits of a mineral called magnetite that allows them to navigate in the dark. They are invading Queensland as we speak, potentially the biggest ecological disaster since the rabbits.

the art of longing’s over and it’s never coming back
1980 -- Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1985 -- State Theatre, Melbourne
2008 -- Hamilton, Toronto, Cardiff
2009 -- Rochford Winery, Yarra Valley
2010 -- Melbourne
2013 -- Melbourne, The Hill Winery, Geelong, Auckland
1980 -- Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1985 -- State Theatre, Melbourne
2008 -- Hamilton, Toronto, Cardiff
2009 -- Rochford Winery, Yarra Valley
2010 -- Melbourne
2013 -- Melbourne, The Hill Winery, Geelong, Auckland
Re: Singing Bees
Hi Manna ~
I loved it, too... and Jaked, perhaps the bee lying on the ground beneath the bush needed some reminding, or had already entered the eonic figure eight. I know there seem to be a lot of confused/disoriented bees buzzing into unknown parts, due to... a virus, maybe? I like your poem and the way you seem to have merged with the bees. You could read it to the bees tomorrow. I also like the Lord of the Bees title that Manna has given you.
That's amazing info about the fire ants, Madonna. It must have been interesting keeping track of which ants were doing what. Did they all look the same or were there some differences? Or, was it just that they never left their own 'territory of duty'? So much we don't know
about the world around and beneath us
.
~ Lizzy
I loved it, too... and Jaked, perhaps the bee lying on the ground beneath the bush needed some reminding, or had already entered the eonic figure eight. I know there seem to be a lot of confused/disoriented bees buzzing into unknown parts, due to... a virus, maybe? I like your poem and the way you seem to have merged with the bees. You could read it to the bees tomorrow. I also like the Lord of the Bees title that Manna has given you.
That's amazing info about the fire ants, Madonna. It must have been interesting keeping track of which ants were doing what. Did they all look the same or were there some differences? Or, was it just that they never left their own 'territory of duty'? So much we don't know


~ Lizzy
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
~ Oscar Wilde
~ Oscar Wilde
- blonde madonna
- Posts: 984
- Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:27 am
Re: Singing Bees
Hi Lizzy
I wrote about ants quickly, a word association thing that happens in my head then doesn't get to the paper making quite as much sense. Bees and ants are similar in their organizational behaviour. As a child I remember having an ant farm, a glass box filled with sand, but I also watched them around the school yard and the back yard etc. They all look the exactly same to me but to stop you going cross eyed trying to follow the same ant you mark them with white-out or paint.
I also have a vivid memory of my cousin (who was blind) standing on a bull ants’ nest and panicking when they started to bite him. We also called them jumping jacks because they actually jump at you. He wouldn’t move and I didn’t want to get close enough to grab him and pull him off. He was screaming, I was screaming, I can’t remember how it ended. Bull ant bites were a common occurrence on our childhood beach holidays.
I think researching ants (or bees for that matter) would be interesting. There are theories that ants can predict earthquakes, volcano eruptions and floods. A species of fire ant, originally from Brazil, is becoming a major pest around the world. It also stings.
I sound like an ant geek, it's funny how these things can stay with you.
I wrote about ants quickly, a word association thing that happens in my head then doesn't get to the paper making quite as much sense. Bees and ants are similar in their organizational behaviour. As a child I remember having an ant farm, a glass box filled with sand, but I also watched them around the school yard and the back yard etc. They all look the exactly same to me but to stop you going cross eyed trying to follow the same ant you mark them with white-out or paint.
I also have a vivid memory of my cousin (who was blind) standing on a bull ants’ nest and panicking when they started to bite him. We also called them jumping jacks because they actually jump at you. He wouldn’t move and I didn’t want to get close enough to grab him and pull him off. He was screaming, I was screaming, I can’t remember how it ended. Bull ant bites were a common occurrence on our childhood beach holidays.
I think researching ants (or bees for that matter) would be interesting. There are theories that ants can predict earthquakes, volcano eruptions and floods. A species of fire ant, originally from Brazil, is becoming a major pest around the world. It also stings.
I sound like an ant geek, it's funny how these things can stay with you.
the art of longing’s over and it’s never coming back
1980 -- Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1985 -- State Theatre, Melbourne
2008 -- Hamilton, Toronto, Cardiff
2009 -- Rochford Winery, Yarra Valley
2010 -- Melbourne
2013 -- Melbourne, The Hill Winery, Geelong, Auckland
1980 -- Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1985 -- State Theatre, Melbourne
2008 -- Hamilton, Toronto, Cardiff
2009 -- Rochford Winery, Yarra Valley
2010 -- Melbourne
2013 -- Melbourne, The Hill Winery, Geelong, Auckland
Re: Singing Bees
There is an ant in Costa Rica that they call the bullet ant because its bite hurts so much you might think you got shot. It's a big muther of an ant too. Isn't it funny? I was tempted to catch one and see if I could make it bite me, but I never did. I don't think I believed that it would hurt enough to make you think you got shot, but I came to my senses.
This milk is sour........It is? Let me try!
I was also at a Leo Kottke concert recently, and he played a tune that he called "Ant Heads" or "Ant Faces" or something. He'd been somewhere like a friend's house or a doctor's office and there was a book that contained image after image of ant heads/faces. They were all different, all ugly, all ants. I got the impression from what he said that they were electron micrographs, but he didn't say so.
welcome, welcome, Blonde Madonna, we're all geeks here.
This milk is sour........It is? Let me try!
I was also at a Leo Kottke concert recently, and he played a tune that he called "Ant Heads" or "Ant Faces" or something. He'd been somewhere like a friend's house or a doctor's office and there was a book that contained image after image of ant heads/faces. They were all different, all ugly, all ants. I got the impression from what he said that they were electron micrographs, but he didn't say so.
welcome, welcome, Blonde Madonna, we're all geeks here.
Re: Singing Bees
Hi Madonna and Manna [you'll recognize your parts as they come around
] ~
White-out on ants. Yes, that would make it much easier following their paths
~ I wonder if it might harm them in some way... or if they're just tough like that. I remember watching them as a kid, too... getting real close to the ground. I've always really liked the big, black ones. Carpenter ants are that way, too, but the ones on the ground look the same. Carpenter ants will eat wood like termites do [basically, anyway... destructive].
Bull ants. They sound painful... their name alone. Your poor cousin
. How horrible being attacked like that by something you can't see. They jump at you
!?! Good Lord
. Good way to ruin a trip to the beach. Did you have jellyfish in the water, as well?
Fire ants. Yes. I've encountered more than a few and they burn like fire.
Only you, Manna
. Can't imagine why he didn't just say so
.
~ Lizzy

White-out on ants. Yes, that would make it much easier following their paths

Bull ants. They sound painful... their name alone. Your poor cousin



Fire ants. Yes. I've encountered more than a few and they burn like fire.
They were all different, all ugly, all ants. I got the impression from what he said that they were electron micrographs, but he didn't say so.



~ Lizzy
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
~ Oscar Wilde
~ Oscar Wilde
Re: Singing Bees
hello Jaked ,
i really enjoyed reading your post ,
and the thought of the bees singing and giving thanks for a good day
they are very intelligent ,
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ ... zabout.cfm
laura
i really enjoyed reading your post ,
and the thought of the bees singing and giving thanks for a good day
they are very intelligent ,
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ ... zabout.cfm

laura
..saying your words were not empty ,
makes them no less hollow
littlecrow feb/07
makes them no less hollow
littlecrow feb/07