How sweet life was

On day 7 of groving: Silver Spoon Jacquie Campbell's sculpture has been placed near the cafe in the Abbey Gardens. 

Recent research demonstrates that bees have a preference for neonicotinoid laced sugar solution, a pesticide that drastically affects their fitness or kills them depending on dosage. Use of three neonics in sugar beet seed treatment were banned in the UK in 2018 under EU law. As a member of the public, its a difficult subject to get to grips with despite our geographic immersion in this zone of innovation and conflict.

bee
     your dance
               caught
          in honeypop lollipop
sting blunted in a flow
          of amberglow
     your jaunty stripes
          your flirty wings
          all bristling attention
ready to burst through
          the boiled gold
                     of your prison walls
 
perhaps
     you are
          the last bee
               preserved
                     to remind us
                          how sweet
                               life was
 
Sue Burge

Jacquie Campbell As someone who is simultaneously baffled and fascinated by the everyday world, my artistic activity allows me to think through the questions that niggle at the back of my mind. I am often absorbed with how we perceive and connect with barely visible and overlooked processes that exist within our surroundings and everyday life. I construct spaces, journeys and sometimes objects that invite ‘noticing’. I am interested in how we can practice ‘deep looking’, beyond the visual, using all our senses. I wonder whether a stronger understanding and better connection with these unexamined processes would lead to different ways of being in the world: a sense of wellness and a new environmental conversation.
​Instagram @ jaccampbellrojo @flow.east @wildhabits2020 www.jaccampbell.com

Sue Burge is a freelance mentor, creative writing and film studies tutor based in North Norfolk. Her first poetry collection In the Kingdom of Shadows (Live Canon) and debut pamphlet Lumière (Hedgehog Poetry Press) were published in 2018. More information at www.sueburge.uk