Osmia ribiflores, the bee, is rarely perceived as one of nature's priceless jewels, but when the bee makes its way into the catacomb of poetry, it seems to always harvest something beautiful. It must be something about their haunting, yet reassuring drone, or their unbridled loyalty that crawls into the poet's ear and into his/her subconscious.
Jean Valentine's Bees suspends the reader's mind in a surrealism that makes the reader wonder what the poem is trying to say. Only 10 lines, the poem's brevity is another thing that helps make it so potent. The imagery describes a man 'covered in bees' repeating his lonely maxim: 'I've never known such pain.' Then, another man also covered in bees comes to help the first man in a seemingly gracious act of pity. Valentine's statement that says 'only bees can get the other bees off' suggests that the bees must symbolize some common burden the two men share; perhaps the pain of loss or substance abuse. Even still, Valentine's choice of bees is perfect.
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