It's fighting back!

About this time last year I was upset when my lovely honeysuckle went from a mass of flowers to a shrivelled up dead looking thing over a period of 2 or 3 days. I didn't pull it up, or cut it back, just left it - and this year it produced some stunted leaves and burnt looking buds in the spring. Today I noticed this  - not as big as they used to be, but much better than I had expected. There are quite a few, but all at the top of the plant, nothing much below my head height. It is obviously not dead, but I don't know whether I dare cut it back in the autumn or would that kill it, as all the life seems to be above about 4ft from the ground?