Amber Rose Crowtree
Previously Selected Poems
LOON-DISTANCE
by Amber Rose Crowtree, Grafton, NH
From a wind-bound beach, loons borrowed my soul, beckoned it to theatre, hatched it naked cool and moonlit. Caught in webbed-foot current, I witnessed primeval opera. The first took me in its phantom echo feathered and savage across the lake. A second granted its ghost release. A third loon howled, from the depths of its lungs, pushing notes clear and clean as eagle-bone flute, smooth-edged, and alive. Black dagger bills, velvet red eyes, speckled bodies thick with aquatic muscle applauded—chanting wings lilt and actual against the water. Say that eternity is one pulsing cell, buoyant inside of loons.
First published in Willow Review and her chapbook, Harboring the Imperfect.
Poet statement: I wrote “Loon-Distance” the day after camping at Clark Pond in Canaan, NH some years ago. These Common Loon sounds haunted me from 1 a.m. to sunrise and for a lifetime. I am grateful to live so near our ponds and lakes and see Gavia immer activity in the daylight.
Our Golden-Tabby Kitty
--for Greg
Our kitty is a prospector by instinct.
We find her curled inside the green
Garrett Gravity Trap gold pan,
glowing in the afternoon sunshine, like a
gold nugget. She fits perfectly, purring.
Before heading to the river, we find
golden-red hairs from her blessing the pan.
Like the rich, red-haired, leprechaun
dressed in green, coveting the pot-of-gold,
our kitty has a naturally-constant smile.
This morning, she is splayed inside the
green Dream Mat sluice—the girth of her
body is where the gold flakes glitter inside
the unicorn, if you’re lucky. Again,
the afternoon sunshine beams in her fur.
What dreams are occurring so peacefully?
She looks up sleepily with her glinting
yellow-topaz eyes that claim we are the
luckiest, prospecting, cat-people alive.
Amber Rose Crowtree
First published in InterTown Record, NH
