Poem of the Week: ‘Hive’ by Simon Armitage

This week, our Faber Poem of the Week is ‘Hive’, from Dwell, Simon Armitage’s brand new illustrated collection inspired by the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

Hive

The weather inside
is always a blazing storm,

feverish cells colliding,
particles being drawn in,

bashed around, thrown out.
Imagine dipping your hand

into the swarm,
feeling the furious blizzard

at the reactor’s core.
Imagine the same frenzy

of fusion and fission
conjuring up

the wrought hexagonal what-the-heck
of a honeycomb

and jars of sunlight
in edible form.

Copyright © Simon Armitage, 2025. Used by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.

Read all our poems of the week.