Juliet Henderson
There was lively discussion on a number of topics at the late April Oxford Coordinating Group meeting, including the dandelion and its (un)welcome intrusion into gardens. One thing can sometimes lead to another, and it was this – followed by Ellen Bassani’s query about how to distinguish weeds from plants if you can’t see them, then topped by the genius of Deb’s thinking – that led to a Friday with Friends on gardening.
Below are two outcomes of my dallying with dandelions: the poetic and the painted.
Dandelion (dents de lion)
In meadows of fresh green cool
In wastelands, in pavement cracks
Comes dandelion
Ready to root
Cheery, cheeky presence
Golden tease, playing ‘catch me if you can’
With gardeners tending lawns
Locked in a lore of purity
Yellow stink clutched in little hands
Seed heads puffed to tell the time
Drifting parachutes freed to seed
What care you for the bad press?
Benign weed, you are edible from top to tail
Your leaves grace tables high and low
Full of nutrients sucked up
Through the hidden ribbons of roots
Your honest, humble heart giving all,
A survivor till the end
Back to May 2021 Newsletter Main Page
Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 505 • May 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW