• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Friday Poem

The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

  • The Frip
  • About
    • Masthead
    • Contributors
  • FAQ
  • Archive
    • Search the archive
    • Friday Poems
    • Reviews
    • Features
  • Subscribe
  • Submit a poem

The Friday Poem on 10/06/22

We chose ‘Studley Royal Water Gardens Temple of Fame’ by Sue Burge to be our Friday Poem this week because we were seduced by its rich and sensual language, and because we love the story — we can’t help cheering on those little pioneer bees as they slide under the dome, do their dance, celebrate their new home. The poem calls up the natural and the wild and sets them against the artificial and fake, and we know which side we are on.

Studley Royal Water Gardens Temple of Fame

When they peeled the dome
from the damaged temple

it was full of honey, oozing
down the columns like sweet candlewax

the workmen’s hands slathered
as if they were desperate bears

just out of hibernation;
legacy of the monastic bees

who’d swarmed in trees
since the dissolution.

Imagine them one day
sliding under the dome

not caring about the fakery
of painted marble, hollow columns

the notion of fame;
doing a crazy little charleston

for their fellow bees:
Come, come, we have found a city.

Sue Burge is a freelance creative writing tutor, mentor and editor based in North Norfolk, UK. Sue’s poems have been published in a wide range of journals and have also featured in themed anthologies on science fiction, modern Gothic, illness, Britishness, endangered birds, WWI and the ongoing pandemic. Her four poetry collections are: In the Kingdom of Shadows and Confetti Dancers (Live Canon), Lumière and The Saltwater Diaries (Hedgehog Poetry Press). A new pamphlet, Watch It Slowly Fade, is forthcoming with Hedgehog Poetry Press. Sue Burge’s website is here.

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Email

Read this next

The Friday Poem 'Las Ciguenas' by Matthew Stewart

Las Cigüeñas

by Matthew Stewart – our Friday Poem on 11/06/21

Site Footer

MENU

  • About us
  • FAQ
  • Submit a poem
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Mentions Légales
  • THE FRIP

    The Frip is The Friday Poem’s reviews and features magazine. We run book reviews, profiles, interviews, essays, lyric essays and other features of interest to poets and readers of poetry. Read the Frip here.

    NEWSLETTER

    Why not sign up for our weekly newsletter and never miss a Friday Poem again? Pop your email address in the box and click the button.

    Copyright © 2023 · The Friday Poem · All Rights Reserved · follow the Friday Poem on Twitter · follow the Friday Poem on Facebook · ISSN  2968-7675 follow the Friday Poem follow the Friday Poem on