Skip to main content

FOR THE BEES by Camellia Stadts


I believe that there is a deep connection between bees and the Blessed Mother (Mary, Tara, or any other form you chose to see her as)…

I wrote this a few months back while doing a research paper on bees and colony collapse disorder for an English class I was taking. I realized that everything destructive that is going on with the bees and the whole planet Earth, can be summed up in just 6 words: Total lack of honoring the sacred. One night this poem just came pouring out of me.

This month of August is National Honeybee Awareness month, and sharing my poem here with you today is my effort in this direction.

 It saddens me to think that our planet's bee population has decreased tremendously. The little honey bees provide a valuable pollination service for us upon which fruits and vegetables depend. In the US alone, the bee population has dropped from 4.5 million in 1945, to less than 2 million now. It is very tragic how in dishonoring Mother Nature, life can take such a swift turn towards death. 

I live just on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan and have no land for a garden much less room to tend bees as much as I would like to. But I will continue to study and write about bees, and how vital our relationship to them is, and to our own sense of the sacredness of Mother Nature.


For The Bees

Look under petals
Around the block
Down concrete highways
Through Mall parking lots

Where have we gone?
Left without a trace
We could no longer keep up
Your demanding pace

You take us to places
We don’t even know
And expect us to call
Wherever you dump us, home.

The pesticides used
You could not understand
Goucho, Poncho
They need to be banned

The sugar water you feed us
Will not keep us strong
More poison you give us
 All winter long

So where have we gone?
You ask scratching your heads
We are in the Divine Mothers arms
Where we are safe from all harm.

You will not think to look there
You are no longer wise
Your arrogance has blinded you
To your own demise. 
~
Photography by Lisa Saraswati Cawley


Camellia Stadts: “I live in Hamtramck, MI which is surrounded by Detroit. I am 57 years old and recently laid off from a Michigan based insurance company due to downsizing. I attend Marygrove College in Detroit and will graduate in Spring of 2014 with a B.A. in English. I have been divorced for a number of years and live with my Lab, ShyAnn and black cat, Kitty. I have 2 grown children, my son Nick and daughter Carolyn and I also have a 5 year-old grandson, Cameren. Besides writing and nature I also have a passion for knitting and crocheting.”


~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~ 

Comments

  1. Thank you for reminding us of the sad plight of the honey-bee and of our interdependent relationship with this little, but most valuable, creature. I never knew that August was National Honeybee Awareness month. In the ancient bhakti-yoga tradition, this is also the time of year around which the divine is celebrated as Balarama, who is said to love honeybees!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IMAGINE A WOMAN by Patricia Lynn Reilly

  This poem invites you to look upon yourself with loving kindness… Gazing at your own true reflection, you will discover that everything you have longed for “out there” is already within you! I invite you to love your creativity fiercely. Faithfully plant seeds, allowing under-the-ground dormant seasons, nurturing your creative garden with love and gratitude. In the fullness of time, the green growing things thrust forth from the ground. It's a faithful, trustworthy process. AND it takes time and patience.  Blessed is the fruit of your creative womb! I invite you to trust your vision of the world and express it. With wonder and delight, paint a picture, create a dance, write a book, and make up a song. To give expression to your creative impulses is as natural as your breathing. Create in your own language, imagery, and movement. Follow no script. Do not be limited by the customary way things have been expressed. Your creative intuition is original. Ga...

STILL I RISE by Maya Angelou

Six years ago, I had the privilege of listening to Maya Angelou speak live on the value of poetry at the University of Florida. I share these reflections with you again today, in honor of her birthday.  I was relieved to get one of the last seats available for this rare event, having arrived at five for Maya Angelou ’s free speech at eight. The historically long line began with people settled into beach chairs in winter coats busying themselves on tablets, or eating sandwiches for dinner. As helicopters hovered above and newscasters below, I felt the excitement of realizing that thousands of people were gathering together to hear an eighty four year old black woman recite her poetry! Maya Angelou speaking at University of Florida on Feb. 27, 2013  When the curtain rose -after an overflow of hundreds were sent away- we lucky ones on the inside greeted Maya with a standing ovation, as she smiled sweetly, beginning her talk using metaphors from nature. Maya asked...

MIRABAI'S POETRY by Caitanya Dasi

Much of the mystic love poetry from India revolves around musical and theatrical expressions that portray the loving relationship between the soul and God… One such celebrated relationship was that between princess Mirabai and her divine beloved, Krishna. Born in the sixteenth century  into a noble Rajput family, Mirabai married into a family that did not take fondly to her devotion to God. Consequently, she went from royalty to mendicant, and decorated her spiritual path with poetic songs. I first heard of the great poet, Mirabai in the early 1970’s while I was living and studying bhakti yoga at the Hare Krishna temple in Los Angeles, California.  As I had a background in the performance arts Mirabai’s life instantly spoke to me. Her fusion of spiritual sentiments with song resonated with my passion for music, drama, dance, and the devotional path to loving God. In 1968 I serendipitously met a devotee by the name of Mirabai, who taught me that the perfectio...