Bee, by Rachel Bower

When I first received Rachel Bower’s beautiful pamphlet, Bee, I skimmed quickly through it in search of an essay suitable for a reader as bee-ignorant as myself. It was only when I slowed down and concentrated on the poems that I realised Bower had already transformed the nectar of her knowledge, practical and theoretical, into poetry-honey, adding only occasional minimal footnotes – which somehow read as a coda to the poem rather than an information byte. Carol Rumens, Poem of the Week in The Guardian

Much of the collection is about the insects themselves, and this is where Rachel’s writing truly sets itself apart from the bee poetry that came before. Instead of following the literary tradition in which bees are used as symbols or metaphors for something human, Rachel approaches the bees “on their own terms as much as possible” … while Bee does indeed discuss the dichotomies of beekeeping – the ancient traditions, the constant pressure to adapt to novel challenges, the relaxed open-ended enjoyment of being with the bees, the vigilance beekeepers must maintain to be aware of potential threats – it is also one of the only poetry collections that meets bees where they are. Lucy Parkinson, BeeCraft magazine.

Eighteen poems exploring the ancient and complicated relationship of help and harm between bees and humans, from Stone Age honey hunters to modern beekeepers.

Bee reflects on biodiversity loss and climate breakdown, seeking to honour individual bee species, while connecting to the wider context in which we all live, whether human or more-than-human. Poems of praise celebrating the wonder of ultra-specific species adaptations mix with elegy and loss, including a lament for the fragile Cullum’s Humblebee specimen collected by the Natural History Museum before the bee went extinct in 1941.

Drawing on careful research and practical knowledge, Rachel Bower explores tangled histories, such as the export of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) to Australia, or the work of pioneering women beekeepers and suffragettes who represented defining moments of female scientific activity.

Both hopeful and despairing, Bee meditates on the sweetness and sting of human interaction with the rest of the natural world.

Rachel Bower

Rachel is a poet and novelist based in Sheffield. Her poems and stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including The White Review, Magma, The Rialto and The London Magazine. She had a poem Highly Commended in the Ginkgo Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Best Poem of UK Landscape 2023. Her first novel It Comes from the River is published by Bloomsbury. Bee is her third poetry collection.

Eco-print paperback made of 100% recycled paper, printed in Suffolk with non-GM vegetable inks.