“Hi. I’m Amba, and I’m a poet.

I have been a closet poet my entire life. While I was writing poetry I was also experiencing life. I survived childhood and went to college. Got married and divorced. Had children. Had other relationships some I probably shouldn’t have. Worked for a “large corporation” most of my life only to have them lay me off at the age of  50 – so I went back to school and became a massage therapist and started over again. But this time starting over I had a wonderful husband who has always known I was a closet writer. And he also told me one day I would write a book. So all those years of writing about all the experiences life has given me is here, and this is my coming out of the closet.

I am Amba and I am a poet.

There is one other person that I need to mention in this closet coming out, though. I believe that sometimes there are humans that are angels that visit us, messengers. I had one of those right before I was laid off, and my life totally changed and I completely redefined my world. I worked with him at the “large corporation” I mentioned. He was a young guy who was fresh out of college. We had one of those strange undefinable connections. At a holiday 10.00 gift exchange where we drew numbers and got our gift, I got the one from him. He told me that he bought it hoping I would be the one to get it. It was a trigger point massage tool and an old book of poetry by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Passion from 1883.

I genuinely believe that he was showing me my future.  A couple of months after he passed me those gifts, he died. I hope he is watching me come out and knows that I am grateful for his blessings.

naked & healing

newly released autumn 2024

This volume is full of the big and small moments that make life beautiful, and heartbreaking, and simple, and complex. Poetry about mundane experiences like having a flat tire, surviving life in a service job, the joys and challenges of parenthood and childhood, and how we cope with change. The thread that touches most of the poems in this collection is relationships. Relationships with our children, our parents, friends, employers, ourselves, our memories, the earth and the world at large. At the end of the day, relationships are what life is about. The experiences we have in life would be vastly different if we had those experiences with different people.

domesticated demons

available now

Domesticated Demons is a collection of poetry about moments of anxiety, insecurity, depression, and other triggers and traumas that are familiar to many. In the same style as Amba's premier release, Maiden Mother Crone, the poetry you'll find in this collection is written for real people, about real life - raw, honest, and simple. This book provides a window of understanding, and the healing of knowing you aren’t alone. We all have demons - the trick, is learning to domesticate them.

maiden, mother, crone

available now

Maiden, Mother, Crone is a glimpse into the mind of a woman as she contends with her life’s experiences. The book is divided into 3 sections each one a stage of womanhood. Each poem an experience as she moves through these 3 stages of womanhood. Maiden is a young woman trying to find herself, find someone to love, begin to heal herself, understand where she fits in the world. Mother is a blend of motherhood and divorce – they went hand in hand. Crone is the later years in life. Looking back from where she has been and forward to what is left. Throughout she is trying to find peace and acceptance with herself and her world. Somewhere you may recognize pieces of your story too.

poems