Looking for a quote about bees, sex, and life

April 16, 2009 2:59 PM

I once read a poem, or possibly a quote, about a bee pollinating flowers and how it was so beautiful and I think they even maybe connected it to sex and/or the essence of life. Does anyone know the name or author of this?
posted by ascetic to media & arts (12 comments total)

Point is, what's so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There's a certain orchid look exactly like a certain insect so the insect is drawn to this flower, its double, its soul mate, and wants nothing more than to make love to it. And after the insect flies off, spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it. And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. I mean, how could they know that because of their little dance the world lives? But it does. By simply doing what they're designed to do, something large and magnificent happens. In this sense they show us how to live - how the only barometer you have is your heart. How, when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.

That? It's from the screenplay to "Adaptation" by Charlie Kaufman.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:03 PM on April 16 [5 favorites]

Is it this from "The King and I?"

"A girl must be like a blossom, with honey for just one man.
A man must live like honeybee, and gather all he can.
To fly from blossom to blossom, a honeybee must be free
But blossom must never fly, from bee to bee to bee.”
posted by Fortnight Bender at 3:07 PM on April 16

Video of the Adaptation scene drjimmy11 quoted.
posted by sharkfu at 3:10 PM on April 16

Thank you drjimmy11!! That's it! What a beautiful quote, eh? And thank you FB for your effort. :)
posted by ascetic at 3:10 PM on April 16

Heh, I immediately thought of John Donne, but then realized the poem I was thinking of is called The Flea. So no, not a bee. I wonder if you can think of any other identifying markers? Drawing comparisons between bees pollinating and sex is likely very common.
posted by JenMarie at 3:12 PM on April 16

FWIW, this also reminds me of the Toomer's speech from The Great Santini, about "boy flowers" and "girl flowers" and how the bees are like little "preacher men" and every flower they touch become married.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:20 PM on April 16 [1 favorite]

Oh, I always forget about that preview thing. Good job, drjimmy11!
posted by JenMarie at 3:59 PM on April 16

Um, bees pollinating flowers *is* sex... just not for the bee.
posted by Maias at 4:47 PM on April 16

Thank you for your question, you brought back a memory for me.... discovering Lew Welch at age 17 through his poem "Botany".

BOTANY

Consider the Passion Flower:

Who'd ever think a plant would go to
so much trouble

just to get fucked
by a Bee.

How shocked I was! How disapproving and scandalized. And above all, how very very YOUNG.

Maybe it wasn't the verse you had in mind, but it definitely falls under Variations on a Theme!
posted by GuffProof at 6:10 PM on April 16

On the other side of things, there's bees assaulting the flowers.
posted by nonane at 6:32 PM on April 16

yay drjimmy, but for those interested in songs with the bee-pollinating-the-flower euphemism:

Grease 2: Reproduction
Once Upon a Mattress: Man to Man Talk
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 11:30 PM on April 16

I've always liked this E.B. White poem: Song of the Queen Bee
posted by Prawn at 6:30 AM on April 17 [1 favorite]