Let's Share Our Poetry, Prose, and Short Fictions!

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

For any poetry, prose, or short fiction enjoyers or writers on this forum, I thought we could have something to share our writings here that may, or may not, be connected to our aromanticism! If you don't have a poem, piece of prose, or short fiction yourself, then you can share your favorites from authors and talk about what makes you love the piece of literature so much!

I was inspired to create this topic from a bar that has poetry nights and I recently have been getting back into the groove of writing because of it! This may not go anywhere, or has already been discussed before, but regardless welcome!

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

A Bird Beak and Bumble Wings

by Memphis Lucas  (original poem)

 

I cannot understand the bumblebees

Who fly in pairs, or more, to pollinate and make honey

Who make more of themselves to love themselves, and to be proud of something

 

I cannot understand the bumblebees

Who can do great and beautiful things, sure

Born out of passion and a love for birds

Who settle down for life to raise young till they're matured

 

I cannot understand the bumblebees

For I would not be described as thee

A reptile they'll call me, for lacking the love that helps those birds soar above to the trees with those bees

A reptile I'll be, yes, for I am not a bird nor a bumblebee

I've longed to be, for me I thought dead when I discovered that lack of passion in my heart

A passion that made everything dubbed a bee or a bird, from the very start

 

I cannot understand the bumblebees

Because my passion is wrought with absorbing the sun

Not from an internal feeling that I constantly see burned and burned till that light is completely done

I myself can't fly, though I have seen others alike me able to rarely

I wouldn't fly, I found, if I were able to

No, I wouldn't fly, not even barely

 

I cannot understand the bumblebees

And I am not sorry for stating so

It is not wrong to be a bird or a bee, of course, but it wrong to be a reptile, though?

I have found so many passions of what I make, of what I love

But that love doesn't make us what we are, for we would be naught if not for the sun above

 

To be me is to free my skin of the prerequisite to being "alive"

My aloneness is free, yes a loveless reptile me

Than what could ever make a bird's beak sing or a bumble wing fly

Edited April 12 by The Newest Fabled Creature
Edited title of poem

[Ekaterina]

Good poem from the point of idea, but bad symbolism. Bees aren't "romantic", most of them - the worker bees - are actually unable to reproduce and don't mate and aren't supposed to, their life revolves around all kinds of different things (building, food gathering and pollination, standing guard, raising the young which are their siblings not their kids). The queen and the few males are the only ones that deal with mating (since the species needs to reproduce to survive). The bees (collective bees like the bumblebees and the honey bee, and ants that work the same way) are among the most aromantic/asexual-coded animals ever. 

[Fox]

3 hours ago, The Newest Fabled Creature said:

Bird Beak in Bumble Wings

I like it! Is there perhaps asexual representation with not relating to "the birds and the bees"? 

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

On 3/15/2024 at 12:53 PM, Ekaterina said:

Good poem from the point of idea, but bad symbolism. Bees aren't "romantic", most of them - the worker bees - are actually unable to reproduce and don't mate and aren't supposed to, their life revolves around all kinds of different things (building, food gathering and pollination, standing guard, raising the young which are their siblings not their kids). The queen and the few males are the only ones that deal with mating (since the species needs to reproduce to survive). The bees (collective bees like the bumblebees and the honey bee, and ants that work the same way) are among the most aromantic/asexual-coded animals ever. 

Oh, I didn't write about the bees because I thought they were romantic-coded, although I can definitely see as why someone would see the poem as associating them as romantic creatures; so, I did fail in making that clear in the poem. I chose bees (and birds) because of the "birds and the bees" take that parents typically use to explain sex to their kids, which in a sense would tie back into romance because although sex isn't inherently tied to romance at all and is it's own separate thing, parents will usually tell their kids that you'll have sex with someone you "really love"; forgoing all nuance and complexity, such as people who have sex simply because they want to with no romantic love attached. I think I could write a poem about that all on it's own, actually. But, I don't truly know if this explanation is even a good concrete reason for the poem since as you said I could've potentially used vastly different symbolism that would've worked a bit better or more beautifully (especially with all of the facts centered around bees), but it's what I had in mind when writing it; but of course all kinds of interpretations are going to be born which I find amazing.

Ooo, actually, you've promptly inspired me to want to write a poem about the aspecuality of bees. To be honest, I could've wrote a poem about the non-romantic life of a bee compared to a bird's, which usually there are birds who mate for life and definitely have babies.

On 3/15/2024 at 1:11 PM, Fox said:

I like it! Is there perhaps asexual representation with not relating to "the birds and the bees"? 

Now that I actually re-read what I wrote, although I'm not asexual myself, I can see that it can definitely be read as such! I'd say it's both an aromantic and asexual poem then! Or however else someone wants to interpret it really.

Edited March 17 by The Newest Fabled Creature
added a sentence

[Ekaterina]

2 hours ago, The Newest Fabled Creature said:

Oh, I didn't write about the bees because I thought they were romantic-coded, although I can definitely see as why someone would see the poem as associating them as romantic creatures; so, I did fail in making that clear in the poem. I chose bees (and birds) because of the "birds and the bees" take that parents typically use to explain sex to their kids, which in a sense would tie back into romance because although sex isn't inherently tied to romance at all and is it's own separate thing, parents will usually tell their kids that you'll have sex with someone you "really love"; forgoing all nuance and complexity, such as people who have sex simply because they want to with no romantic love attached. I think I could write a poem about that all on it's own, actually. But, I don't truly know if this explanation is even a good concrete reason for the poem since as you said I could've potentially used vastly different symbolism that would've worked a bit better or more beautifully (especially with all of the facts centered around bees), but it's what I had in mind when writing it; but of course all kinds of interpretations are going to be born which I find amazing.

Ooo, actually, you've promptly inspired me to want to write a poem about the aspecuality of bees. To be honest, I could've wrote a poem about the non-romantic life of a bee compared to a bird's, which usually there are birds who mate for life and definitely have babies.

Now that I actually re-read what I wrote, although I'm not asexual myself, I can see that it can definitely be read as such! I'd say it's both an aromantic and asexual poem then! Or however else someone wants to interpret it really.

Oh I see, thanks for explaining. I didn't know this part about sexual explanation symbolism (how does this explanation work though if you don't mind telling, do people use analogy to pollination to explain sex? Would make sense, through it's more about the flowers that are engaging in their version of a reproductive act than the bees that provide the service. Also, what part do birds play in the explanation? Birds, especially songbirds and birds like swans, are often associated with romance, but what's about them that allows to explain sex easier?)

And great to hear I gave you an idea for a poem, good luck with it! Sounds like it would be a lovely one. 

Edited March 17 by Ekaterina

[Holmbo]

2 hours ago, Ekaterina said:

Oh I see, thanks for explaining. I didn't know this part about sexual explanation symbolism (how does this explanation work though if you don't mind telling, do people use analogy to pollination to explain sex?

People don't actually talk about birds and bees. They just use that expression as a euphemism for talking to their child about sex.

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

9 hours ago, Ekaterina said:

Oh I see, thanks for explaining. I didn't know this part about sexual explanation symbolism (how does this explanation work though if you don't mind telling, do people use analogy to pollination to explain sex? Would make sense, through it's more about the flowers that are engaging in their version of a reproductive act than the bees that provide the service. Also, what part do birds play in the explanation? Birds, especially songbirds and birds like swans, are often associated with romance, but what's about them that allows to explain sex easier?)

And great to hear I gave you an idea for a poem, good luck with it! Sounds like it would be a lovely one. 

It always gave me a weird feeling, but yeah "pollination" is sometimes used as symbolism to not only sex, but usually conceiving a child. I wouldn't know exactly how it works other than the act of a bee pollinating a flower, to which that flower then has the potentiality of having babies, is probably why some people use it; but as Holmbo said, people don't usually actually talk about bees when using pollination in this format. The analogy is not used a lot, but I've read that type of symbolism in old literature before that was trying to kind of censor sex scenes. The bit about the flowers engaging in their own reproduction would be a lot more accurate and I believe in hindsight it would've been better to use than only using bees for any kind of alloromanticism/allosexuality or service, but there's just this weird insinuation about bees when they pollinate flowers that people often make sexual?? (As I stated above) It gets weird and I never found it ""sexual"" for a bee to do that, but with the symbolism of pollination some people have used the actual act of bees pollinating flowers to symbolize sex in some form or another, too. And the bird part I used to further the "birds and the bees" analogy and because they are typically the actual romantic "counter-part" to bees, where if people used "pollination" to describe sex then I just used birds since they're considered "romantic" (or at least some birds are); but other than that I kind of just threw birds in for the analogy.

And thank you, I'm going to try to write the new poem very soon! I also think I could probably write something about how bees (aspec folk) are often having their actions taken as something romantic or sexual when we're not tryin' to be (like the act of a bee pollinating a flower).

Edited March 17 by The Newest Fabled Creature