Løvetannslekta

Quinn LUthy

Quinn Luthy is a student at Eugene Lang the New School for Liberal Arts studying environmental humanities and is enrolled in an accelerated master's degree program, which he will start next year. Quinn is inspired by a close relationship to 'nature' and his work centers on queer experiences in nature. He hopes that his work affirms queer relationships with nature and adds to a queer presence in discourse about nature and the climate crisis.

Abstract

How to kill Dandelions in Lawns, Dandelion Prevention and Maintenance, How to Remove Dandelions from your Yard. When I first started writing Løvetannslekta, I was focusing on documenting a changing relationship with nature during the time of COVID-19. However, as I wrote, I found myself gravitating towards Dandelions rather than nature in general. They are pretty cool plants: Their seeds can live for almost 15 years without germinating. They can reproduce without a sexual partner. They can grow through concrete. They can live in polluted, arid, and shady environments.

However, almost every article on Dandelions ends with ‘the best way to rid your lawn of these weeds’. After reading post after post about how to remove Dandelions, I thought that I might make a more effective poem by giving Dandelions their own voice. I played with lots of techniques, like erasure and using found language, as well as ‘research’ or ‘Wikipedia’ style entries. This is a project that experiments with death-bringing language, as well as with more traditional narrative poems that also serve Dandelion’s purposes. I have learned more about Dandelion’s purposes. I think that they are in a way comforting to me, because I am stuck inside, whereas Dandelions are always stuck outside, and never seem to have a designated place. They are a sort of foil for quarantine which I am grateful to have found.

This is the first poetry that I have written that isn’t framed by personal experience. Yes, personal experience is of course interwoven in the piece, as well as a guiding theme. However, I like to think that this piece is much more ‘sterile’ of my personal narrative. In a lot of my poetry, I like to weave together ideas with different natural descriptors to make meaning. Usually, it is very charged with emotion, but here, because I didn’t focus on a specific Dandelion, the place had to remain ambiguous. Because of this, I feel like Dandelions function as more of an idea of Dandelions (or idealized Dandelions) within the piece.

I was also looking at the way that language can deal with spaces, especially limited spaces, and of course there is a contrast here on how language can give a sort of agency to voices that were previously inaccessible. There are some aspects of the poem that are not meant to be understood by anyone but me, or Dandelions. However, I think that this speaks to a sort of witness as well, where the reader is able to witness an uncontextualized stream of shared consciousness between the speaker and Dandelions. Dandelions. Dandelions. Dandelions. Dandelions.

5 days

Wood

4 days

Plastics

2 to 3 days

Stainless steel

2 to 3 days

Cardboard

24 hours

Copper

4 hours

Aluminum

2 to 8 hours

Glass

Up to 5 days

Ceramics

5 days

Paper

to 5 days.

1478 THE DOOR THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY APT 1 APT 2 THE HALLWAY APT 3 APT 4 APT 5 THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY APT 6 APT 7 APT 8 THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY THE HALLWAY APT 9 APT 10 APT 11 THE HALLWAY 

everything outside the hallway

the tree outside

the window is blooming. outside

i hold my breath

outside you are 
not a person you are a subject
like scattered light

in a mirror or a prism
there is vapor above and below
the ocean and the sky

some have no purpose for 
theweedsstuffedinthecurb
left outside 

this is blatant 
like natural selection sometimes a bird’s 
beak is better shaped to a flower

otherwise how could 
we have pretty things everywhere 
sometimes they are 

inevitable and thrown away
curbside like trash and weeds
If you project the rate of growth from last year onto the rate of growth this year it is obvious that
I am not in the forest. This spring is paradox but       becominggreen

-

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You can’t change the characteristics that make a weed a weed. But understanding those characteristics can help you get the upper hand in your own lawn or garden. Whether you decide to pull, hoe, mulch or treat problem weeds with an herbicide, act early, before those “virtueless” weeds become well-established.

-

RECENT OBSERVATIONS

Dandelion

Achillea millefolium, Common Yarrow, Milfoil, or Field Yarrow

Alliaria petiolata, Garlic Mustard

Amaranthus spp., Pigweed

Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Common Ragweed

Artemisia vulgaris, Mugwort

Asclepias syriaca, Common Milkweed

Draba verna, Early Whitlow Grass

Erigeron annuus, Annual Fleabane

Hedera helix, English Ivy

Lamium purpureum, Purple Dead Nettle

Lamium amplexicaule, Henbit

Malva neglecta, Common Mallow

Oxalis stricta, Yellow Wood Sorrel

Phytolacca americana, Pokeweed, Pokeberry or Poke

Persicaria pennsylvanica, Pennsylvania Smartweed

Rumex crispus, Curly Dock

Trifolium repens, White Clover

Veronica persica, Persian Speedwell, Birdseye Speedwell.

CITIZEN

you are to remain INDOORS throughout the duration of the invasion. We will launch out of the crack on the sidewalk IN FRONT OF your house it is best to avoid this area to avoid civilian casualties. There are many people talking on screens. Listen to them they know everything. STAY INDOORS and listen to the people on the computer first we will disconnect your wifi but you should CONTINUE to listen to the little people on the little screen and you should CONTINUE to believe to what they say. They have been persecuted and therefore understand the HUMAN CONDITION.  You should think about things like online classes and invite positive energy into your homes. You should try not to think about the possibility of living the rest of your life inside. Today the national grid will call and ask you to take a survey about the service of gas in your city. Today you should complete the survey because it is very important and we want to monitor the quality of your gas. TODAY, you should take the corpses of yourselves from millions of years ago and convert them into gas, and oil, and plastic, and coal, and electricity. IT IS IMPERATIVE that you constantly put yourself into a state of unbearable pressure so that you may liquify underground and be discovered by the state of Texas for future use. Living is a choice that makes you HAPPY and SMALL at the same time.

YOU ARE NOT SOIL

EMERGENCY UPDATE

Despite efforts to bury the dead, we are not decomposing quickly enough to satisfy the economy and are therefore declaring bankruptcy. This will be our final message.

KEY
words
roots

LIFE
human
oil

POWER
life
death

GOD
justice
dandelion

PRAYER

Dear God,
I would like to introduce you to Jonathan, he is my human. I love him - and I love you too. But not like I used to. I used to think of you as my boyfriend, somebody who would show me beautiful places. At first, I knew that you wouldn’t stop loving me. I felt like I’d turned my shoulder from you. But I know you because you are alive, and I am alive. In my life I am you. In loving you, I am loving myself. In loving myself, I can love Jonathan and surround us both with our selfness. Jonathan means ‘God’s gift’ in Biblical Hebrew. I love him. I met him the day after my birthday. We have been walking around Newtown Creek which is an industrial area, where the landscape has been flattened and drained and made into a place which prioritizes industry. Place place place. Place is nature. There are dandelions everywhere, thank you for them, there are many weeds in the curbside. Jonathan and I can find nature anywhere, no matter what the species tells us. Now – their voices are quiet and reality bleeds through. Reality is that buildings are simply stones and will inevitably become objects for forests and marshlands as soon as humanity breathes itself to death.
Amen.

VACCINATION

You
human
shall
be
nutrients
in
the
soil
there
are
so
many
hungry
mushrooms.

PRAYER

Dear Human,
Recently, I have been sitting on my roof. There are so many of you looking out the windows. I know you’re lonely. Outside I have placed millions of dandelions on the streets. They are safe. You can talk to them.
Amen

-

Dear God,
Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion Dandelion.
Amen

Dear God (Genesis 9),
I intercede on Dandelion’s behalf. I intercede on behalf of everything because if you are everything, then how does it feel to be the components of a semi-automatic rifle? We buried rivers. We coated the earth in rock, flat and unforgiving. Does the soil get thirsty? You made a covenant with life.
This time, I advise you, make Dandelions your Noah.
Amen

-

Goodmorning mom! I just finished my classes for the day.

Yay! How r u?

I’m good, I’m working on my dandelion poem. Thank you for the pictures ^^

-

On earth day, my mom cleaned up trash on the highway at the end of her driveway. She told me that she found mostly cigarette boxes, shooters, and bigger bottles of liquor. She was wondering if it is a human instinct to throw our vices out of sight. Usually this means litter. We throw unsightly things onto the ground, so we don’t have to deal with their implications. The dandelion is also on the ground, usually this means that they have to compete with things like litter for resources, and somehow this makes them weeds. The dandelion is a plant on the ground like litter in industrial zones, is this what makes it a weed?

-

Dear parent,

If your society is hungry, it is not your obligation to feed it. You exist within a capitalistic world. Your hunger must grow and grow until it is bigger than anybody else’s. There are many growing things on the ground, eat them. There are many things on the ground that are also eating what you are eating. Eat them too. If your society is to survive, it will compete with everybody else for resources. You must teach your society to see things as resources. You must initiate commodification, you must initiate fetishization. You must post articles online on how to rid the concrete of some plants and replace them with other plants. If there are dandelions growing on the concrete, you must rid the concrete of them so that your society may use it to throw things away upon. You must place prepositions next to each other continuously until they grow straight up like a skyscraper. You must tell your society that Santa Claus is real, and that your society is on the nice list. You must do this while simultaneously not believing in God yourself. You must believe that God is a means for your society to interact with nature. Sometimes things die, but it’s ok because if you were good you will go to heaven. Sometimes good things happen to bad people, but it’s ok because those people will go to hell. It is important for your society to understand that the earth is something that we pass through, and that it is not the final destination. There are no dandelions or litter in heaven. Heaven is where your society wants to go.

-

In the beginning there was a single dandelion. The single dandelion held all of the life in the universe within it. It split into two dandelions, and the life within was also split. There are many dandelions that are alive. The life in the universe is shared with them. By continuing to be alive, they are life itself. By continuing to live, they are the first dandelion, and themselves, at the same time.

-

I miss my mom, but sometimes she sends me pictures of dandelions.

Notes

[1] Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 29). Løvetannslekta. Wikipedia. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B8vetannslekta.

[2] Pathak, N. (2021, April 20). Surface Cleaning and COVID-19: What You Should Know. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/lung/how-long-covid-19-lives-on-surfaces.

[3] Erasure of my own description of concrete

[4] Daily Press. (2019, August 16). What makes a weed a weed? dailypress.com. https://www.dailypress.com/life/home-garden/dp-what-makes-a-weed-a-weed-20120718-story.html.

[5] Team, T. M. (2018, May 6). What the Most Common Weeds Say About the Condition of Your Somers, NY, Landscape. Manzer's Landscaping in Peekskill, NY. https://www.manzerslandscape.com/blog/what-the-most-common-weeds-say-about-the-condition-of-your-somers-ny-landscape.

[6] How Are Oil/Natural Gas Formed? Adventures in Energy. (n.d.). https://adventuresinenergy.org/What-are-Oil-and-Natural-Gas/How-Are-Oil-Natural-Gas-Formed.html.

[7] Choi, C. Q. (2009, November 11). Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html.

[8] Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 23). Burial. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial.

[9] Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 23). Petroleum. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum.

[10] A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation. A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation\"a plant in | Course Hero. (2019, June 24). https://www.coursehero.com/file/42662040/A-weed-is-a-plant-considered-undesirable-in-a-particular-situationdocx/.

Sources

Choi, C. Q. (2009, November 11). Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html.

Daily Press. (2019, August 16). What makes a weed a weed? dailypress.com. https://www.dailypress.com/life/home-garden/dp-what-makes-a-weed-a-weed-20120718-story.html.

How Are Oil/Natural Gas Formed? Adventures in Energy. (n.d.). https://adventuresinenergy.org/What-are-Oil-and-Natural-Gas/How-Are-Oil-Natural-Gas-Formed.html.

Pathak, N. (2021, April 20). Surface Cleaning and COVID-19: What You Should Know. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/lung/how-long-covid-19-lives-on-surfaces.

Team, T. M. (2018, May 6). What the Most Common Weeds Say About the Condition of Your Somers, NY, Landscape. Manzer's Landscaping in Peekskill, NY. https://www.manzerslandscape.com/blog/what-the-most-common-weeds-say-about-the-condition-of-your-somers-ny-landscape.

A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation. A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation\"a plant in | Course Hero. (2019, June 24). https://www.coursehero.com/file/42662040/A-weed-is-a-plant-considered-undesirable-in-a-particular-situationdocx/.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 23). Burial. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 23). Petroleum. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, April 29). Løvetannslekta. Wikipedia. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B8vetannslekta.