Amber Rose Crowtree

“I began writing poetry at age nine, but the true poetry came to me at age eleven, when I just wanted to shoot hoops. When these mysterious words kept repeating in my head, I HAD to put them to paper.  I wrote my first flurry of poems outdoors on a basketball court, and I’ve been writing ever since.” ~Amber Rose Crowtree

Amber grew up on the coast of Downeast Maine. She currently lives in rural New Hampshire. She has authored two chapbooks: Harboring the Imperfect (Dancing Girl Press) and The Inviolable Hours (Finishing Line Press, 2021) in which her featured poem below appears and was first published by The Sailor’s Review, May 2022. Amber has received awards for her poetry and many of her poems have appeared in various literary journals.

Earth Apprentice

Dear sojourner in this life, why
rush the calls of two geese in flight 
or a youth-hawk screeching for prey,
or the knockell of ravens mid-air?  Why
breathe if it does not loosen your grasp
and escape on the backs of birds?  

If you wish to learn the ancient art
of letting-go of what you love,
then show me a gesture that dances
all four seasons at once, to be
the rush of a spinning Top, one arm
in the past, the other toward the future.

arcrowtree@gmail.com