KATIE MANNING
AT THE NINE MOUNTAIN RETREAT CENTER
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility—
–Emily Dickinson
“It’s lupin!” my friend exclaims
at the back window. “Lupin? Like a wolf?”
I ask, assuming I’ve misheard, but she
affirms that—yes—she’s delighted by lupin.
I look out at the endless green—grass, trees
bushes, the tops of vegetables in the garden—
all of these plants’ names mysterious
to me in this place. “There’s a yellow one!”
my friend shouts. “I’ve never seen
a yellow one.” And with that clue
my eyes spot the colorful conical tails
beside the stone wall—two tall, purple and pink,
and one small yellow, a bright little pack
somehow hiding in the expanse of greens.
Inside, I hunt for information online:
these flowers symbolize imagination
and happiness. They’re supposed
to give a recipient energy to recover
from trauma and bring new opportunities.
And now I feel a little foolish, like I’m
reading some kind of plant horoscope
or nature Tarot card, but here—
standing by my dear friend while she shouts
about flowers after several hard years apart—
I’m ready to believe that this lupin is not
a wolf at the patio door, but a promise
of possibility after the wolves have gone.
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*** ** ***
DEAD. CONTENT.
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read
some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”
―Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–821
1. Domestication
inheritance
causes
our
difficulty of distinguishing
between
origin
and
pigeon,
their differences
ancient
and
unknown
2. Variation
individual
doubts
wide ranging, much diffused
vary most
vary more
smaller
than larger
but
in
restricted
ranges
3. Struggle or Exit
the universal
struggle for life
is most severe
between
an individual
and
the same
individual
4. An Election
Scene:
crosses
characters of trifling importance
power
isolation
extinction caused by
slow action
5. Law of Aviation
external conditions
combined with
false
vision
grow
an economy,
the
flight
of long-lost characters.
6. Cult of The
The the
The on
The or
The in
The of
The all
The law
The con
7. Sins
Sins hide
variable
cell-making
Sins comparable with
slave-making ants and parasitic bees
but different in their origin
8. Birds
first
remove
the
incidental
their
offspring
are
not universal
but
special
9. The Imp of Logic
the sudden appearance
of absence
the rate
of intermittence
the extinct number
as the vast lapse of time
10. Success
appear
change
disappear
11. Care Graph
the
importance of
affinity
cannot be counted
with
distribution
of barriers extensive
as the world
12. Death—continued.
water
is the last
inhabitant
of islands
the relation
of
source
to
absence
13. Finite Embers
extinction
separates
the difficulties
in descent
complex and radiating
14. Elation. Occlusion.
how far
the general belief
of species
may be extended
concluding
is
a
special
favour
1This poem uses the detailed contents of the first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) as a word bank. Section titles are anagrams from chapter titles.
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*** ** ***
LOVE-IN-A-MIST
At the flower bridge, I’m dizzy from the drive on curvy roads, and I feel like I’ve entered Munchkinland: so many types and colors along both sides of the path overwhelm me. I don’t know most of these flowers’ names without asking or reading the signs. One bright blue bunch grabs my attention, so I lean down to read: Love-in-a-mist. Who gave these little blue bursts among the green this fanciful name? I look around as if their namer might come out to confess or introduce themself with a song. Were they in love? Or did they want to be in love but know that we only ever find each other in a haze? Some of these green stems are topped with puffs of white, and I realize that creeping into mid-June, their vibrant color must be past, but the Love-in-a-mist is no less beautiful for that. And the clouds hang low as I walk a little faster to catch up with my friend, who has her entire face pressed into a giant pink peony, a flower whose name I only learn once my friend comes up for air and speaks her love.
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KATIE MANNING
Katie Manning is the founding editor of Whale Road Review and a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University. Winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award for Tasty Other, she’s the author of eight poetry collections, most recently Hereverent (Agape Editions, 2023) and How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press, 2022). Her writing has been featured on Poetry Unbound, Tangle News, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Find her online at katiemanningpoet.com.
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A Dozen Nothing 