Catherine Fletcher

1H

shake the globe                                    how many possible states
 
so abundant                                          atomic flood
of primordial combustibility                                      primary    H
 
this
universe    is no plane                         it heaves         ripples
in invisible            concentric spheres               
feeding
 
one
 
photon                    one e                       merging waves
jumping                 orbit to orbit                                   numbering
 
one                                            
 
in fire                                    this omega element        is  
luminous   so luminous                                 in fusion                 
 
creation’s proving ground             H            ignites                     Shiva-like               unbecoming
present                                               visible                                                                     becoming
 
origins                                   dust clouding                      
 
                                                ​fallout descending

Biography

Photo by Anna Carson DeWitt

​Catherine Fletcher is a Virginia-based writer. Recent work has appeared in journals such as Hopkins Review, Entropy, New Contrast, and Burning House Press, among others. She was a TWP Science and Religion fellow at Arizona State University from 2016-18 and has earned grants from Queens Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the AEV Foundation. She served for a decade as Director of Poetry Programs at the New York-based organization, City Lore, specializing in the grassroots poetry of immigrant communities. She also was Managing Director of the Los Angeles-based Ghost Road Company and served on the organizing committee of the Edge of the World Theater Festival, which highlighted the work of Los Angeles’ small theatres. 

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