Be rendered by the Bee #4

Lindsey Babcock
Word Count:669

Bereaved of all, I went abroad- (382)
And forgot the color of the Day- (383)
Permission to forget- (474)
Henceforth to remember (537)
In rags mysterious as these (55)
The Table is not laid without (538)
By Death's bold Exhibition (410)
Like a dotted Dot- (304)
They thwarted Us with Guns- (228)

Besides the Autumn poets sing (61)
'Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy! (80)
If this is "dying" (56)
In a Coffee Cup, (101)
Where no Autumn lifts her pencil- (77)
There is a morn by men unseen- (17)
It puzzled me to know- (97)
To some fashionable Lady (34)
From off his chamber door- (48)
The flags of nations swang. (24)

It is easy to work when the soul is at play- (111)
Just finding out- what puzzled us- (112)
Stop just a minute- let me think! (113)
Late- when I take my place in summer- (114)
I'm used to that- (115)
How many times it ache for me- today- Confess- (116)
That once- on me- those Jasper Gates (117)
Took Rainbows, as the common way, (118)
How many times they- bore the faithful witness- (119)
The lonesome for they know not What- (120)

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, (710)
Or Bees- that thought the Summer's name (251)
On my volcano grows the Grass (685)
My homely gift and hindered Words (651)
Like Gnomes- (140)
As 'twere a Spur- upon the Soul- (377)
Filaments of Bloom, Pontius Pilate sowed- (258)
The Lilac is an ancient shrub (545)
The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, (713)
Be rendered by the bee. (409)
Entombed by whom, for what offence (417)
Alarms its walls away- (610)
There is a flower that Bees prefer- (181)
How many be (269)
That Cooler Host (333)
Grace of Wealth, and Grace of Station (451)
Misery, how fair (521)
To fetch Her Grace- and Hue- (333)
Like Petals from a rose- (194)
That person that I was- (195)
I- never wed- (105)
Yet upon His Purple Programme (405)
On his babbling- Berry- lips- (104)
The Orchard sparkled like a Jew- (143)
The Height I recollect- (384)
The Hills erect their Purple Heads (689)
Sweet, to have had them lost (426)
Upon a Lilac Sea (579)
Other force- may be presumed to move- (380)
Across my Mouth- it blurs it- (226)
Till Hair- and Eyes- and timid Head- (108)
Banish Air from Air- (409)
Thunder- the Cricket (332)
And spill the Scarlet Rain (326)
And most profound experiment (399)
A Hoary Boy, I’ve known to drop (461)
Should a shrewd betray me (11)
Just how long cheated eyes will turn- (96)
My Heart to subdivide- (326)
Who may be Purple if He can (473)

I almost strove to clasp his Hand (260)
Until it blocked my eyes (195)
Another summer’s Day! (58)
The Angels must have spied, (71)
The thought beneath so slight a film- (97)
And so, I thought the other way, (214)
The Thought is quiet as a Flake- (656)
“Heaven” has different Signs- to me- (280)
Some say goodnight- at night- (705)
How many be (269)
How Death’s Gifts may compare (182)
How short it takes to make a Bride- (222)
When We stop to Die- (351)
There is a strength in proving that it can be borne (501)
Exhilarate the Bee, (638)
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home (498)
Love the dull lad- best- (122)
Deal with the soul (123)
The absent- mystic- creature- (117)
Where for the night (54)
Forever- is composed of Nows- (307)

Death is like the insect (697)
A Bee his burnished Carriage (579)
The Spider holds a Silver Ball (297)
A Bee I personally knew (581)
The Cricket drops a sable line (671)
Bees- to their Loaves of Honey (517)
The Butterfly’s Assumption Gown (546)
A prompt- executive Bird is the Jay- (523)
The Eagle of his Nest (183)
Hound cannot overtake the Hare (68)
With Hat in Hand, polite and new (498)
But nature and mankind must pause (690)


Dickinson, Emily. “The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson.” New York: The Modern Library, 2004.