{"id":3634,"date":"2026-09-09T10:33:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T17:02:18","slug":"peristena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/peristena\/","title":{"rendered":"Peristena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I stopped writing about people.<br>I gave them up for a wildflower.<br>Since I made up those people anyway,<br>They are none the wiser.<br>You can&#8217;t ghost ghosts.<br>(In fact, that&#8217;s true in several ways\u2014<br>A topic to explore after I&#8217;m done with flowers.)<br><br>The specific flower\u2014<br><em>Engelmannia peristena<\/em>\u2014<br>Is more than a flower as are all.<br>Composite, cut leaf, lofty,<br>Sturdy stem:<br>It beautifies roadsides<br>Dapples pi\u00f1on-juniper woodlands<br>And brightens the desert scrub.<br><br>It is loved by millions,<br>Those being hummingbirds<br>Bees<br>Butterflies<br>Deer<br>Sheep<br>Goats<br>Cows<br>Rabbits<br>And more.<br><br>Intrepid botanical that it is<br>It sends its taproot deep<br>Into sand, clay, or caliche,<br>Hugging the ground<br>Holding it against erosion<br>Taking as little water as is possible.<br><br>This generous stalwart daisy<br>Is holding the very Earth together.<br>And it never wonders if<br>You love it<br>Or if<br>You love it not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I stopped writing about people.I gave them up for a wildflower.Since I made up those people anyway,They are none the wiser.You can&#8217;t ghost ghosts.(In fact,&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/peristena\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Peristena<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[525,523,528,529,526,530,344,147,505],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-botany","tag-daisy","tag-engelmann-daisy","tag-engelmannia-peristena","tag-nature","tag-peristena","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-santa-fe-writers-group","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3635,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions\/3635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kevinrayarcher.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}