Gretchen Fletcher

About Place Journal, Volume II Issue I
Trees

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT WRITING POETRY AT SQUAW VALLEY
 
that the Quaking aspen

• reproduces through sprouts, new shoots springing up from root systems
• is found in groves or clusters of clones, never as lone specimens
• expands by root-sprouting to fill available habitat
• has one of the widest distributions of any tree in NA
• casts millions of tiny seeds each year, but none are viable

 
that the Jeffrey pine

• is a rugged, stalwart tree that stands alone
• will sometimes hybridize with the Western Yellow Pine,
• but they remain two distinct species
• is protected with a bark up to four inches thick
• can survive in harsh, stark conditions

 
that I

• am not an aspen

 
 
 
Gretchen Fletcher’s poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including upstreet, Chattahoochee Review, Inkwell, The Mid-American Poetry Review, and Poetry as Spiritual Practice by Robert McDowell. She won the Poetry Society of America’s Bright Lights, Big Verse competition and was projected on the Jumbotron as she read her poem in Times Square. She leads writing workshops for Florida Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress. Her chapbooks, That Severed Cord and The Scent of Oranges, were published by Finishing Line Press. Her poem, “And Still I Have Loved,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.