Comments on: Yucca

By: ..deb

..deb — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:07:20 +0000

Yes. Invasives. They are considered as much a threat to native species – if not more – as is habitat destruction.

In Portland we have English ivy and holly and certain clematis as well as others. I can’t imagine painting a lovely portrait of them. You’re kinder than me.

I read Chris’ s piece on the yucca moth. Intriguing. Beautiful. I appreciate the synergy between your two pieces.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:06:46 +0000

Glad you liked the poem. There are a lot of different species of yucca – Spanish bayonet, for example, is a yucca.

By: ..deb

..deb — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:02:20 +0000

Beautiful language to describe a beautiful – and forgotten, it seems to me – plant.

I like your comments allusions to mythical men of the “desert”.

I’m also intrigued by your knowledge of yucca and where you found them in snow. (?. I grew up in the Mohave desert and didn’t expect you and your environs would know them. Ah, I finally read your comment responses. I understand. Yikes.)

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:05:22 +0000

Thanks, Tiel and Jo – glad you liked.

By: Tiel Aisha Ansari

Tiel Aisha Ansari — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:06:19 +0000

I really respond to the ecological theme here. Also the fact that the yucca can’t reproduce because the moth hasn’t followed it (yet)– nice metaphor for some aspects of the immigrant experience.

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:19:43 +0000

Very, very good this.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:08:40 +0000

Thanks for stopping by. I do find dramatic monologues liberating to write.

By: Sweet Talking Guy

Sweet Talking Guy — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:03:37 +0000

What a great voice, I always wondered what a Yucca sounded like!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:09:09 +0000

Sally – The most lyrical description of the relationship I’ve read was Chris Clarke’s essay in the Insecta issue of qarrtsiluni, which focused specifically on the Joshua tree (a type of yucca, of course): Yucca Moths.

Fred – Of course yuccas do flower here, they just don’t set seed. From what I could gather on the web, I think this cultivar is most likely a species native to the southeast, where it was spread around by the Indians who grew it for fiber (those filaments) and soap (the roots).

brendanblue – sometimes I think deserts make the best natural gardens: hardly anything looks like a weed! Well, except for all the invasive grasses and thistles.

Shai – Thanks for the interesting exegesis. I think it shows that by focusing on concrete particulars, a poem can often gain more resonance than if it tries to remain non-commital enough to serve as an extended metaphor. The seeds of the universal germinate in the particular, or something like that.

It seems to me that the image of a plant removed from its native ecological milieu and turned into what ecologists call an exotic is not only an important subject in its own right, but rich with lessons for human beings as well. Plants that — unlike yuccas in the northeast U.S. — are able to reproduce effectively in their new environments so often become horribly invasive, crowding out the natives, because they are liberated from all the checks and balances of their own native environment. But eventually, maybe in a hundred years, those diseases and insect predators will catch up with them, and they’ll start acting more like natives in their new land. (Of course, they may have driven several rare species to extinction by then.)

(You had actually mixed blockquote and link tags in your first comment.)

By: Shai

Shai — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:50:29 +0000

Arghh, I included a hyperlink to a pick which I didn't form right. Here is the pic I was referring to. Sorry.