Verbing an Anthophila

I found the first one of spring
on my windowsill, just bee-ing,
when it should have been
meadowing with a swarm,
oceaning a roar,
pollening and sweetnessing
with honeyed kissing.
Instead, it’s dead,
Just bee-ing.

Kim M. Russell, 30th April 2018

Dead Bee

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Thirty poems in April: a final in verbs

Bjorn is our host for the final day of April and the last poems of NaPoWriMo. As he says, today we have reached the end of madhousing and voicing and some of us should be proud overachievers who have written a poem every day in April. Bjorn wants to talk verbs, whose words that turn the wheels and are so much more interesting than other word classes.

Bjorn says, that the world of words is filling up with things, warehouses filling up with objects: innate and passive, they sit there, waiting for way too few verbs to put them in action. He has a solution – verbing. The word verb is a noun, but verbing a verb turns verb into verb. Bjorn says that we can do the same with almost any verb and he wants us to try it.

30 thoughts on “Verbing an Anthophila”

    1. Thank you, Sanaa! I’ll have to catch up with reading later – I have a hospital appointment this afternoon, so I’m writing poetry and moderating exams before I leave.. I hope you’ve had a good start to the week! 🙂

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  5. Liking your “bee-ing’s”, Kim. We are running short of ‘bees’ in Texas, perhaps your kind could help the pollination of the fruit trees.
    ..

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    1. We have a similar bee problem here. I think they are trying to encourage a new generation of bee keepers but I don’t know how successful that will be(e).

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  6. Oh, sad! But beautifully written. I love the pun of “bee-ing”, and the wonderful verbing of “meadowing with a swarm, / oceaning a roar, / pollening and sweetnessing”. And who could fail to warm to the “honeyed kissing”? Long may our bees survive!

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    1. Thank you, Sherry. Do you know the old saying? A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; and a swarm of bees in July isn’t worth a fly. There isn’t one for April, so I imagine my poor bee arrived far too early, considering the snow and rain – brought to life by a short spell of warm weather.

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  8. A fitting ending for the mad month of April. Poor bee. But alas, time is due when time is up – but you’ve did a great job with the verbing!

    It’s been wonderful to share and read with you this month Kim. Cheers and happy trailings.

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      1. my pleasure Kim, it was quite the trip! And good luck with finding some semblance of “normal” now – especially since you’re in the heart of exam time etc. Hope you catch your breath!

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      3. oh wow – that’s a stretch – good luck with it – and I hope you find time to stretch your wings and just breathe!

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    1. Thanks Paul. It’s been interesting to see how many of us kept up, despite all our different schedules, jobs and lifestyles. I’m already looking forward to next April!

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  13. Poor little bee. You reminded me of one time, a bee was trapped inside my window. I crushed a paper towel and put it over him, to try to rescue him. I swear, he said, “Help me!” And I did, he flew away….to live happily ever after.

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