Ideas Overflowering
Science, art, and nature all take their turn in ‘Feynman’s Flower’ by Jeannine Pitas. But the poet leaves the reader to decide how it will all play out.
Enjoy the poem in its entirety here, from Issue 2, Spring 2014.
Feynman’s Flower
by Jeannine Pitas
Downcast Ophelia holds the flowers up, ideas overflowering
in a pool of soft rust. She stops before the dark water, then
turns to see if he’s followed. He has not. Feynman
is there saying, “The scientist sees more
than the artist sees.” The arc of each petal, the wires
that connect pistil to roots, the millions of years
that had to pass, the births and loves and murders
before those burgundy thoughts came into being.
But hearing his words, Ophelia turns away, runs from artists
and scientists, whatever dark rivers ahead.
She tries to recall her past, her hours
of kneeling in dirt, turning over and over the
rocks. Once Feynman did the same, back when both
of them saw the biosphere as the size of a cell,
back when stars were beetles and lilies were stars,
Pangaea spread into a constellation of intentions,
evolution shaped like petals rather than roots. Now,
wondering if they could ever see the same flower,
they stand in the dark, a bouquet of rust between them.
And for more from Issue 2, visit the bookstore!
Jeannine Marie Pitas is a poet, Spanish-English literary translator, writer, and teacher. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature, she currently lives in Iowa and teaches literature, writing, and Spanish at the University of Dubuque. Jeanine is the author of three poetry chapbooks and the Spanish-English translator of several Latin American writers. Her book of poems Things Seen and Unseen was published in 2019. Visit her on Twitter @JaninaLaPapita, or at jeanninemariepitas.com.
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