More Than Weeds

By L Kiew

More Than Weeds, the debut poetry collection by L. Kiew, explores the language of migration and how it is used in relation to plant and animal species, as well as peoples. These knowledgeable and verdant poems draw deeply on botanical and ecological detail and reveal secret histories thriving in the gaps between definitions; here are precious seedlings, unforced flowers, tongues of leaves, tangled roots and rhizomes.
With roots in decolonialising botany and horticulture movements, and influenced by the impact of the climate crisis and regenerative gardening practices, Kiew's poetry is alive and thronging with the interconnected nature of things – and the formative forces of nurture, family, food, refuge and love. Human and plant voices speak for themselves of experiences of belonging and displacement, as well as encounters with violence. These vivid poems that ask us to scrutinise what is really contained or constrained by demarcations – whether those of weed or wildflower, or of borders and hostile environments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nine Arches Press
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781913437657

L Kiew

A chinese-malaysian living in London, L Kiew works as a charity sector leader and accountant. She holds a MSc in Creative Writing and Literary Studies from Edinburgh University. Her debut pamphlet The Unquiet was published by Offord Road Books in 2019. She was longlisted in the 2019 National Poetry Competition and was a 2019/2020 London Library Emerging Writer. Her poems have been published in Brittle Star, Butcher’s Dog, Finished Creatures, Gutter, Ink Sweat and Tears, Lighthouse, Magma, Shearsman, Tears in the Fence, The Dark Horse, The Scores, The North, Rialto, Under the Radar and Wasifiri among other magazines and websites.

Book preview

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More Than Weeds

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More Than Weeds

L. Kiew

ISBN: 978-1-913437-64-0

eISBN: 978-1-913437-65-7

Copyright © L. Kiew 2023

Cover artwork: © Christine Knappe, 2021 (via Unsplash).

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, recorded or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

L. Kiew has asserted her right under Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

First published February 2023 by:

Nine Arches Press

Unit 14, Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre,

Great Central Way, Rugby.

CV21 3XH

United Kingdom

www.ninearchespress.com

Printed on recycled paper in the United Kingdom by:

Imprint Digital

Nine Arches Press is supported using public funding

by Arts Council England.

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Contents

Psithurism

Tulips

Knotweed

Underground each word

Ah Kong held our family together

Forest text

Ficus

Afterlife

Corydalis lutea

Splits and rasps

When we consider everything that grew

Lassaba

Seated lady x Ivy-leafed toadflax

     (x Aubrey Beardsley)

Red rearranged

Of rust, smut and mould

Impatiens glandulifera

Rhubarb

Migrant

Swallow

Learning to be mixi

Self-portrait as Bartlett pear

Gombak

Bakkwa

Chicken

Of the shortest day

Rabbits

Kuih Kapit

Testimony against Robert Fortune and his ilk

How the tree feels

Rhododendron

Open gardens

Buddleja davidii

Rust Square

We’ve taken Rosa

Wisteria

On being told by police

In search of

You who treat desire like an app on your phone

Boscage

Postcards

Planatus x hispanica

She’s against thieving

When the tattooist says I sat like a rock all day, I think

Karwinski’s fleabane

If I’d gathered enough or held you

Francesca

Phyllotaxis

Do not trust

Vandals

St Anthony’s fire

When I said I wanted to be

Geoxyle

Robinia pseudoaccacia

Voices I have not heard

Intent

Gleditsia tricanthos

The more I tasted the more I understood

Only in the interest of national security

There’s always spontaneous combustion

We remember when blood and love were just

These trees were considered beautiful

Today everything is on fire

The conservator

Weeds are wild

To live here

Seeding and sproutings

Horticultural notes and numbers

Acknowledgements

About the author and this book

It’s yours to walk the laid path’s line or

stray past margins into wilds