That the world is painfully beautiful painfully sad That spent blossoms recall earth under which they once slept Remembering air into which they now fall
The Life of the Bee
Song Cycle by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011)
1. Millennium Approaches  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Jeffery Beam , "Millennium approaches", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this page: Jeffery BeamIMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.
2. The Spirit of the Hive  [sung text checked 1 time]
Back in the shaggy underbelly of the hive in the quick amber of the Queen's chamber the message passes, testifies phenomena of order. Come.Come with me to the sweet chestnut flower, the viola and the fox- glove. Finger and invade the low-slung swinging willow. In circuitous dances it tumbles: the one prayer. Before and after. Precise as distance.
Authorship:
- by Jeffery Beam , "The Spirit of the Hive", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this page: Jeffery BeamIMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.
3. The Queen  [sung text checked 1 time]
In collaboration with my others I build this hive. As I am Goddess, this, then, is my cathedral. Built of wax and lives. Of light and honey. It grows around me. My first sensation was of yellow: a hum forcing my skin to see. Since then I have sung the praises of this operation. And counted the mysteries. Storing my drooly jewels.
Authorship:
- by Jeffery Beam , "Ars Poetica: The Queen", appears in The Fountain, first published 1992, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]IMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.
4. The Sting  [sung text checked 1 time]
With great stealth and smoke approach our dome. For if not, a flame, dry and burning, a dazzling destruction, only momentary, will greet you. You, who threaten, let this pin-prick, this red fever-bite, be a warning. In our saracen tunnels, we hold our own, asking nothing.
Authorship:
- by Jeffery Beam , "The Sting", appears in The Life of the Bee, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]IMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.
5. The Swarm  [sung text checked 1 time]
First, the miraculous droning, sibilant dances directing and thumping, buzzing in the foundation, snipping and cutting green air. A great muffled drum, the chorus tenses. Its sibyls pour out in a drunken jet to sing it:the bee-flock, the thunder-polleners who tell exodus in a roaring tissue their matriarch with them throbbing Exalt! Exalt! up to the pear tree. Then, from the mass molten with magnetism and cracks, a yawn explodes, clumps to the pear limb, and silences. Even now, scouts shuttle through the branches making fiery mummery to the sun: inciting compass. The fathoming nucleus waits for the telling. This is a thing, some will say, men will not do.
Authorship:
- by Jeffery Beam , "The Swarm", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this page: Jeffery BeamIMPORTANT NOTE: The material directly above is protected by copyright and appears here by special permission. If you wish to copy it and distribute it, you must obtain permission or you will be breaking the law. Once you have permission, you must give credit to the author and display the copyright symbol ©. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law.