Bees
by Jane Hirshfield

In every instant, two gates.
One opens to fragrant paradise, one to hell.
Mostly we go through neither.

Mostly we nod to our neighbor,
lean down to pick up the paper,
go back into the house.

But the faint cries—ecstasy? horror?
Or did you think it the sound
of distant bees,
making only the thick honey of this good life?

Jane Hirshfield, "Bees" from The Lives of the Heart. Copyright ©1997 Jane Hirshfield. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. (buy now)

Today is the Christian holiday of Easter Sunday, the celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead three days after his crucifixion. Easter is a moveable feast; in other words, it's one of the few floating holidays in the calendar year because it's based on the cycles of the moon. Jesus was said to have risen from the dead on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. For that reason, Easter can fall as early as March 22nd and as late as April 25th. Easter also marks the end of the 40-day period of Lent and the beginning of Eastertide; the week before Easter is known as Holy Week and includes the religious holidays Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The word "Easter" and most of the secular celebrations of the holiday come from pagan traditions. Anglo Saxons worshipped Eostre, the goddess of springtime and the return of the sun after the long winter. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.

It's the birthday of one of the most successful contemporary British novelists, Nick Hornby (books by this author), born in Maidenhead, England (1957). His books include Fever Pitch (1992), High Fidelity (1995), About a Boy (1998), and A Long Way Down (2005). His newest novel is Just Like You (2020).

It's the birthday of novelist and essayist Cynthia Ozick (books by this author), born in New York City (1928). She is the author of The Messiah of Stockholm (1987) and The Puttermesser Papers (1997). She said, "The sentence is my primary element, my tool, goal, bliss. Each new sentence is a heart-in-the mouth experiment."

It's the birthday of Isak Dinesen (books by this author), born Karen Christenze Dinesen near Copenhagen, Denmark (1885). She and her husband, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, moved to Kenya where they started a coffee plantation and she wrote a book about her experiences there, Out of Africa (1937). It made her one of the most popular Danish writers of all time.

It's the birthday of Irish poet Brendan Kennelly (books by this author), born in Ballylongford, County Kerry (1936). He was a literature professor at Trinity College in Dublin, and a very popular poet — he published more than 20 books of poems. He said:

"To be born in Ireland is to inherit not only one of the most beautiful little countries in the world, but also an entire legacy of prejudices, hatreds, clichés, and an impressive supply of apparently invincible ignorance."

One of his best-known works is Cromwell (1983), a book-length poem about the English leader who invaded Ireland in the mid-1700s and sought to wipe-out Catholicism. Another of his books is The Book of Judas (1991), a 400-page epic poem from Judas's point of view.

Kennelly died on October 17, 2021, at home in Ireland.

He said:

"Poetry is, above all, a singing art of natural and magical connection because, though it is born out of one's person's solitude, it has the ability to reach out and touch in a humane and warmly illuminating way the solitude, even the loneliness, of others. That is why, to me, poetry is one of the most vital treasures that humanity possesses; it is a bridge between separated souls."

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

^