Beekeeper's Veil and Poet's Hat

 (A duplicate of my Practical Poet blog post...)

Today I went to a backyard on the other side of town to try to catch a bee swarm that had originated from a beekeeper's hive. Alas, the bees were twenty to twenty-five feet up in a tree, and even my extendable painter's ladder plus extendable painter's pole and attached bottomless 5 gallon water bottle provided insufficient reach. 

Also, there were power lines involved. 

As I said to the beekeeper, I am passionate, but I'm also sensible. 

He's a librarian (married to another librarian) and their children went to school with ours. We know each other, but not well. So I was touched that he remembered that I write poetry (!) and asked me how it was going. I gave him a brief update, and he shared that tomorrow night, he had scheduled a virtual poetry event with Jane Hirshfield and Lynn Ungar at the Benicia Public Library. I wish I could "go" to that reading. Or to the Rivertown Poets reading with Terry Ehret and Phyllis Klein. Monday nights are good for poetry. Sometimes I think about requesting a change in my work schedule, just to catch some of those opportunities.

Accidental Beekeeper Selfie from a few years ago...