Catherine Carter
In Catherine Carter’s latest chapbook, the poet considers the world beyond the surface: the lives of microbes, housekeepers, and history; tendrils of magic in both blessings and curses; and the magnetism of love, gin, sorrow, and the dark, cool earth. With her characteristic charm, compassion, and humor, Carter tells the stories of a world unseen, all with the uniquely poetic instinct to animate. Good Morning, Unseen is utter bounty in a small package—just as a chapbook should be.
from Good morning, unseen
John-John was back from college and told Moses that 99 percent of the matter in the universe is invisible to the human eye. Ever since, Moses made sure to greet what he could not see.
— “A Good Story,” Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, 1993
Good morning, bacteria
breeding in my coiled gut,
your endless collective of many
the true core of my one. Good
morning, yeasts fermenting
diligently away at all my crevices
and folds, and magnetic field
of gravity which grounds me so close
to this home planet, your pull connecting
the water in this flesh with the drag
of the moon beneath these feet.
Good morning, hairs of fungi
connecting tree to tree and all
earth to all other earth. Good morning,
trails of mouse urine
through the multifarious paths
of grass, which to the vision
of the hovering sparrowhawk glow
ultraviolet, forming arrows
which point the way to the door
of the soft grass-lined burrow.
…
$14 – ISBN 978-0-936481-52-4