Young Writers Project: ‘Carefree honeybee’

Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers and artists, which has been based in Vermont since 2006. Each week, VTDigger features the writing and art of young Vermonters who publish their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for 12- to 18-year-olds. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org and 802-324-9538.

Nature can be cruel, and nature can be kind; it can slam us with a hurricane, or show us a daisy popping up from a crack in the sidewalk — usually when we least expect to find one, but are most in need of a heartening sight. This week’s featured poet, Astrid Longstreth of West Bolton, pushes away the proverbial rainclouds to find confidence in the sun once again — or in this case, the busy optimism of a honeybee flitting merrily between the flowers.

Carefree honeybee

Astrid Longstreth, 14, West Bolton

Carefree honeybee,

don’t you see the hope you’ve given me?

I climbed up and up and up but the end seemed never closer, and I was reaching, reaching, reaching for a dream that was never there.

But that’s when I saw, in the flower’s soft maw, a carefree honeybee.

And if you can hover and buzz, if you can dance and love, in the face of growing darkness,

then maybe I can too.

And if the rain pours down, you’ll take cover in the forest, green life all around.

Not a care in the world you’ll have, little carefree honeybee.

The flowers’ nectar so sweet, and the sunlight you’ll meet, and twirl in a dreamland of hope and relief.

And with open arms, your hive will greet you, a homecoming to revive and treat you, to a rest that’s well deserved.

If you can rest, maybe I can too.

Carefree honeybee, don’t you see the hope you’ve given me?

Now when I’m stuck in a tunnel of depression, happiness gone, replaced by desperation,

I’ll remember the lesson you’ve taught me.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Young Writers Project: ‘Carefree honeybee’ .