davies




























































































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(I) Ideal beekeeper

dressed in cricket whites
   & sports jacket

everything he required
   within easy reach

every movement
   deliberate
   & positive

the hive never jarred
   & the least smoke used
   as was needed

paying no notice when bees
   settled upon him

he was a gentle man
   (alas! I shall never
   see him again)


(after Kelsey)




(II) Pipe

the habitual smoker
may need nothing more
than his pipe for protection
as wafting smoke
in the bees direction
through a tube of india-rubber
   is sure to tame them


(after Cheshire)


Edwardes adds:
wise smokers

cut a pipe-sized hole
in their veil




(III) Smoker

what you put
inside the smoker

is of more import
than the smoker itself


(after Davies)


Edwardes adds:
the best smokers

are made of copper
which never rusts




(IV) June idyll

in a nook of old England
there’s a bee-garden
lined with shady linden
in which a keeper’s sat

in quiet thought
on the honey-barrow
drifting a tendril
of blue tobacco


(after Edwardes)




W. Eric Kelsey, The Spell of the Honey-Bee
Frank R. Cheshire, Bees & Beekeeping, Vol. 2
Andrew Davies, Beekeeping
Tickner Edwardes, The Lore of the Bee
Tickner Edwardes, Bee-Keeping for All









           













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