Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries
bee me up
talk to me about tender.
are you blue from slender.
are you bruised from under.
or are you billowing bright.
were you green this morning.
or are you new to this leafing.
hell bent. on sky filling.
are you made of light.
is this rain again.
or a recent memory.
and is this density.
this opening.
into complexity.
or is a blossom simply.
a tree’s way of saying.
fuck me.
love me.
bee me up.
to reflect is to bend or turn back.
rays or beams of light are reflected
after striking a surface (such as water).
a subject or object is reflected
(on or upon) when bright or polished.
dazzled with this greater light
I would reflect mine eyes.
from under the surface of a lid
a thin membrane is reflected.
from the same root as deflected.
to cast back or cause to return.
a mirror returns a countenance.
her beauteous form reflected clear.
the air thickens into clouds.
a family of swans reflects whitely.
an abundance of light reflecting.
from a white and glittering surface.
the first five flight feathers of a swan’s
wing are most prized for making quills.
to write. or shed light (on or upon).
to pen a reflection. from the Latin.
penna, meaning feather. light as.
a pen, a female swan is also called.
basking (in a reflected glory).
bending (the legs). (now obsolete).
from the same root as inflection.
to bend inwards. a modulation.
the pen reflects her splendid neck.
to preen her ruffled wing.
J. R. Carpenter is an artist, writer, and lecturer in the School of English at University of Leeds. The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018. This is a Picture of Wind was listed in The Guardian’s best poetry books of 2020 and featured in the Digital Storytelling exhibition at the British Library 2023. Measures of Weather was The Observer’s poetry book of the month and a finalist for the Laurel Prize 2025. A new collection, pause, is forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books 2026.