A Jar of Honey

Elena Katsyura

A Jar of Honey

You hold it like a lit bulb,

a pound of light,

and swivel the stunned glow

around the fat glass sides:

it's the sun, all flesh and no bones

but for the floating knuckle

of honeycomb

attesting to the nature of the struggle.

Jacob Polley

I think we’ve probably all held a jar of honey up to the sunlight to admire it.  It’s not just the amber old-gold colour of it, it’s the viscosity, the slow-full knowledge of its sweetness.  In literature, honey is a symbol for delight, and seeing or tasting it, there’s no question why. And Polley  - I admire his work here  – “a lit bulb”, “the stunned glow”, “the sun” , it’s all light. And the incandescent glow, the radiating delight - what is it the product of? Struggle.