Varroa-iations on a theme

The walk up to our front door is often a bit of a dampness minefield. On one side there is a hedge that tends to get a bit overgrown (Yes, it’s a bank holiday. No, I am not going to cut it because, perhaps ironically, it’s too wet), and on the other side is a lot of lavender. This combination can make it a bit damp when walking down the path to our front door.

Not my car. And yes, the path does need pressure washing

The lavender is sagging now and past its best. It’s time to slash it back for the winter, but I can still see a couple of bees gathering round it. I think they are mining it for all it’s worth, extracting the very last of its heady goodness like cutting open a tube of toothpaste to get the last of it out.

Those plucky bees put me in mind of the poem for this week. This poem is also top of mind this week for three other reasons.

I heard Toby helping Ruth with the bees in an episode of The Archers
I reviewed Luke’s debut collection, Dynamo, recently and it was published this weekend over at London Grip. I wanted to write about this poem in the review, but ran out of space. However, that means I (and now you) get the added bonus of reading it here.

It wasn’t the varroa

I kept bees in the noughties.
I had an apiary with a guy called Pele.
I haven’t seen Pele now for a few years.
We fell out over something bee-related.

Colony collapse, they called it
in the United States of America.
After six years most of our bees had gone.
It wasn’t the varroa: we were on top of the varroa.

Pele got into recruitment consultancy
and made considerable sums of money.
I told him I thought all suits looked the same.
I remembered he had always belittled me.

It’s been a few years now since I’ve seen Pele.
I don’t exactly have a job at the moment.
I buy and sell things on the internet. There are websites
where you can fill in questionnaires for money.

++++++++++++++++
Published with permission of the writer. Taken from Dynamo, By Luke Samuel Yates, Smith|Doorstop, The Poetry Business, 2023. You can and should buy it here.

This poem was in Luke’s pamphlet, ‘The Flemish Primitives‘, and has undergone a few subtle changes. In TFP “colony collapse” was in inverted commas. The third line of the same stanza was “After six years most of our bees had collapsed”. I do like the call back to collapse in this earlier version, but I can see why that’s changed. It’s clearer the bees have gone, rather than requiring a spoonful of sugar water to revive them. (Remember to revive a bee if you see one in need, folks).

The last line of the 4th stanza reads “I remembered he had always tended to belittle me.” The shift makes it more powerful, it makes Pele sound like even more of a wanker.

The biggest change, however, is in the final stanza. The last lines read

“I buy and sell things on Ebay.
There are also websites where you can fill in questionnaires for money.”

I wonder if this change to “on the internet” instead of eBay is what someone else referred to this week in an email about how quickly references to tech can date a poem. I haven’t checked the performance figures, but I’m assuming that eBay as a source of selling has dropped off since TFP being published in 2015. The rise of Facebook Marketplace, etc has possibly led us to this change. Or not.

But enough about changes and tweaks.

I love this poem for the sense of someone outside of things, or someone that could be labelled a parasite of sorts, but which one. Is it the protagonist? Is it Pele? If varroa are mites that latch on to bee colonies then who latched on to who? For my money, the parasite isn’t the protagonist, but I have a fairly dim view of most recruitment consultants.

If it wasn’t the varroa, then what was it that caused the collapse? Neglect seems unlikely if they were “on top of the varroa”. It could be more inertia, this poem feels riddled with it. It looks back…”I kept”, “I had”, “I haven’t” “Pele got into…”—Is he still in recruitment, I guess we d’t know because he hasn’t been seen for years—, “I don’t exactly”. It’s almost all past tense or negatives until those last few lines.

Despite me not writing about in my review, I’d argue this poem is a fairly strong representation of many of the themes in Dynamo. I suggest you go and read it (the book and the review) to either agree or disagree.

Also, check out Luke reading from Dynamo here.

Oi, you said three reasons earlier, Mat

Ah yes, well on Tuesday this week I posted online that my pamphlet was being released into the world on 7th November and that it will be called ‘Collecting The Data’. That title relates to the content of some (if not all of the poems) and to my day job as a market researcher. And that day job often involves processing the data collected from the “websites / where you can fill in questionnaires for money”.

Obviously, we use reputable firms that have well-checked panels, and would look down upon anyone employing river-sampling methodologies, etc.

I can now share/remind you that the launch event will also be on the 7th November, at The Deverux Pub in Temple. I will be reading with Matthew Stewart (launching his second full collection. I’ve read it and it’s excellent). There will also be readings by Maria Taylor, Hilary Menos and Eleanor Livingstone. It’s a Red Squirrel Press and HappenStance read off. Who will win? Who will hold the coats???

Come along to find out…I am very pleased as it will be the first time I’ve actually met Sheila, Hilary, Maria and Eleanor.

More details here. And my thanks to Nell for putting this up (and for putting up with me). And very much thanks to Sheila for agreeing to publish me in the first place.

More from me on the book when I have it, but I am very, very excited now and it’s all starting to feel scary.

How about 23 minutes of Pele’s ‘Apiary’. Seems bang on to me.

THE LAST WEEK IN STATS

HEALTH STATS
16K running. slow week running as long week at work. Must get back to a rhythm. 1 lunch time run at work (First in ages)
2 days without cigarettes…
1 day since drinking.

LIFE STATS
1 busy week
1 party with friends
1 friend’s play
3 late late nights
1 meal out with family
1 child with excellent GSCE results
1 child enrolled for A-Levels

POET STATS
0 loose ideas/articles gathered
0 poem finished:
0 poem worked on:
0 poems committed to the reject pile
1 submissions: And Other Poems
0 withdrawal:
0 acceptances:
0 Longlisting:
0 readings:
1 rejection: North. Timed out. Will I ever get in The North
20 poems are currently out for submission. No simultaneous subs
94 Published poems

Reviews
0 review finished: None
0 reviews started:
1 review submitted:
0 review to write: FINALLY!!!

READ/SEEN/HEARD/ETC

Music
r= Radio, A = Audiobook, P=Podcast. The rest is music
boygenius:the record
Murray A Lightburn: Once Upon A Time in Montreal
Wednesday:Twin Plagues
Grant Green: OLEO
Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton: Knives Don’t Have Your Back
Massacre Massacre: new dawn, New York
First Aid Kit: Palomino
Dropsonde
Explosions In The Sky: End (or what’s available of it)
Lucy Dacus: Home Video, Historians
The Archers (p)
The Lucksmiths: Cartography For Beginners
Luke Haines: 21st Century Man
The Verb: Confidence
Mark Eitzel: Hey Mr Ferryman
Goat: Oh Death
Pixies: Doggerel
Pharaoh Sanders: moon Child
Mary Lattimore: Slant of Light
Bettie Servers:Lamprey
Pearl Jam: Gigaton
Guided By Voices; Mag Earwig!
The Auteurs: New Wave
Julian Cope: Robin Hood
Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel: Intensity Ghost
Sonic Boom & Panda Bear: Reset In Dub
The Clientele: I Am Not There Anymore
Another Sky: I Slept On The FloorPele: A Scuttled Blender In The Water Closet
The National: The First two Pages of Frankenstein