Amber Rose Crowtree
Selected Poem
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.
