Honey - Hattie Rennison

Honey by Hattie Rennison

SEVEN...(AND A HALF!): My hands are sticky with ‘honey’ happiness, I smear my mess, it tastes sickly sweet. If only I could stick you just to me We could join the chasm of the loving honeycomb tree; My fingertips are glazed with sticky, silky glee We laugh. Oh ‘honey’ – Oh ‘love’… I finally feel free.

SIXTEEN: ‘First’ ‘Puppy’ ‘Unconditional’ - …Love Articulation of this above? Incompatible. Impossible. I picked them: Our roots so deep – surely storms cannot lift? I clung to the last gloop of sticky honey; thickening like glue. I gasp a breath – submerged under blue Of all your lies…my favourite; ’I love you’

TWICE MY TEENS: I walked into your love Fated to my own choosing Every step, each print… Our rings adorn our loving, glazed, honey fingertips Your arms, my scaffolding Your heart, my incandescent warmth Your soul, my faith Your incarnation, my home. We vow. We promise. We join together to climb the top of our honeycomb tree The sacrament is placed, with the Queen Bee.

THE END OF OUR YEARS: We died the second you took your last breath, Never so appealed to the union of death. Our flame, speckled with radiance – Whispered away, simply like your brilliance - I promise to sift through the sadness of your absence - awaiting my soon, hopeful exhale – craving the presence of your resemblance. When death too, takes my hand I will reach out and hold you with the other Caressing the tightest grip Promising to find your glazed, sticky fingertips Saying my goodbyes to our hollow, vacant, honeycomb tree; Oh ‘honey’ – Oh ‘love’…thank you…for you are the one who has set us free…

Sixth Former Hattie Rennison has written this original poem and offers her own critical reading of it.

The poem, ‘Honey’ exhibits how the perception of love changes as time continues, and as people grow older, our opinions and actions towards love evolves continuously. Each stanza expresses a significant temporal landmark of love in a person’s life; childhood, teenage years, the choice of marital commitment, and finally the parting of love due to mortal death. The complex narration of love is represented using ‘honey’. Not only is ‘honey’ a relation to childhood imagery, bees and sweetness – it is also a homonym; used as a phrase to address a loved one, or amplify a fondness towards a person. Although honey is sweet and tasty, it can also become sickening, messy and cling onto fingertips. Our perception of honey (similarly to love) changes as we grow older. When we are young, the messiness of honey simply adds to its appeal, and there is never too much sugar to fuel the excitement of a child. However, when maturity settles, the consequences of its stickiness and messiness begins to outweigh its initial delicious attraction. This honey echoes love. Complications arise and our ‘rose-tinted glasses’ disappear when reality seeps into our perception of love from the transition of childhood to adulthood. This transition mostly occurs through teenage years; the confusion of love itself and the lack of stability it may have is unsettling. Although our perception of love drastically changes, as we grow and develop, our childlike perception of love being fun and sweet (like honey) always stays in the back of our mind. Threading us along with hope, in order to truly experience the uniqueness of this emotion, however messy it may be along the way. Therefore there is a consistent mention of honey through each stanza, allowing the ignition of a youthful, childlike perception to keep going. Essentially, love is a thoroughly complex emotion, so much so, that it could be considered ‘impossible’ to truly experience with all its purity. As time unforgivingly continues, we are forced to battle through our experiences with love, and allow it to evolve as humans do too.