POETRY JAM - DANDELIONS

“I was a dandelion puff...Some saw the beauty in me and stooped quietly to admire my innocence. Others saw the potential of what I could do for them, so they uprooted me, seeking to shape me around their needs. They blew at my head, scattering my hair from the roots, changing me to suit them. Yet still others saw me as something that was unworthy and needed to be erased.” - Nicole Bailey-Williams
 
This week, Poetry Jam is featuring dandelions: “When you look at a field of dandelions you can either see a hundred weeds or a hundred wishes. Wishes or weeds? What do you see?”
 
Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion, is a common flowering herbaceous perennial plant of the family Asteraceae. It can be found growing in temperate regions of the world, in lawns, on roadsides, on disturbed banks and shores of waterways, and other areas with moist soils. T. officinale is considered a weed, especially in lawns and along roadsides, but it is a useful plant, sometimes used as a medicinal herb to treat many ailments and in food preparation as a green vegetable (we often use it as such).
 
Dandelion wine is a traditional brewed drink prepared from the flowering heads. You can find a recipe to make it here. The common dandelion is well known for its yellow flower heads that turn into round balls of silver tufted fruits that disperse in the wind, which are called “blowballs” or “clocks”.
 
Here is my poem:
 
Harvesting Sunshine
 
The suns of dandelions bloom again,
Shining like golden medals amongst the undergrowth.
They promise rich harvests
To busy bees and ants at work,
As they negotiate the intricacy of divided petals.
 
Delving into the depth of each flower
One finds style, stigma, stamen: A microcosm of functionality;
The magic and mystery of pollination
Swelling seeds in burgeoning ovaries,
Spring’s fecundity magnified in minuteness.
 
The sun is mirrored in each blossom,
As stalks stretch up, carrying the golden flowers skyward.
They tender invitations to be picked,
Captured to be brewed and bottled
Giving a golden wine – liquid sunshine for Winter’s days.