If Bach had been a beekeeper

I found another poem by the poet Charles Tomlinson (1927-, Hartshill born and raised). The poem is again relevant to the allotments here (and to the site's coming beehives)...

 

If Bach had been a beekeeper

If Bach had been a beekeeper
he would have heard
all those notes
suspended above one another
in the air of his ear
as the differentiated swarm returning
to the exact hive
and place in the hive,
topping up the cells
with the honey of C major,
food for the listening generations,
key to their comfort
and solace of their distress
as they return and return
to those counterpointed levels
of hovering wings where
movement is dance
and the air itself
a scented garden