One of the goals that I have for this blog is to honor the people who dedicate themselves to bees. As I’ve mentioned before, beekeepers are fascinating people, but there are a lots of other types of people out there ranging from political activists to artists with a profound love for bees. The first person I’d like to feature is Heather Swan, my TA and inspiration for learning about bees.
As an artist, poet, gardener, baker, and teacher, bees have always played an extremely important role in Heather’s life. Heather’s love for bees began as a child when she saw her first honey harvest with her dad. Since then, bees have been an inspiration to some of the things she loves most. While Heather has kept bees before, her main focus right now is to raise consciousness about the importance of bees. She does so through teaching, giving lectures, writing poetry, and managing community hives. I first saw Heather’s work when she took me out the UW student run hive at F.H King. Check out the photos below to see the hive:
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| Heather at the F.H. King Hive |
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| Opening up the hive |
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| Holding up a section of the hive where the bees make honey comb |
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| Bees have an acute memory, Heather often sings and talks to the bees so that they become familiar with her and are calm when she works on the hive. |
And of course, here is one of Heather's poems about bees:
The Edge of Damage
Poetry by Heather Swan
Parallel Press 2009
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Cows, Rain, Bees
Once again, rain
eliminates boundaries.
Where once there was sidewalk
edged with street,
now there is only water.
In the same way, pain
can seem larger than the body,
passing through the boundaries,
emanating outward
until everything aches:
the trees, the grass,
the solitary cow
lagging behind the homeward herd,
glancing back and back
to the valley of bees.
Bees, who labor
toward a sweetness
which is taken from them
again and again,
but keep returning
from the fields of clover.
