Photo credit: Simon Beckford

Crow’s poetry reading, Surrender to the Sacred, represents a non-secular representation of his experiential journey through personal encounters that have, over time, become transformed from estrangement and suffering into alignment with multidimensional, redemptive gifts of sobriety, self-forgiveness, and wellness. His contemplative poetry is characterized by references to the natural world, spiritual principles of non-violation, and respect for the arts as primary vehicles for clarity and healing of both the individual and the collective during these pivotal times.        

Crow Suncloud (aka Tom Newman) was born in 1955 and grew up in Southwest Harbor, Maine where his deeply rooted love of Mount Desert Island and his mixed heritage of Passamaquoddy and Scotch continues to inform his spirit and his writing. Crow is currently residing with his wife in Albion, Maine, and is working on Inner Woods, a collection of poems spanning over four decades.  In 2003, he published a chapbook titled Going Through Winter, and in 2010 he released a CD titled Poems on the Edge of Time. Crow contributes vocals, spoken word, and indigenous percussion for the Maine-based indie-folk duo Timbered Lake.  

Crow has read his poetry at assorted literary venues throughout New England including The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, The Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey, and The Common Basis Theatre in Manhattan. In addition to hosting community poetry readings, Crow has produced public programs regarding the work of former Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz and has collaborated to produce concerts celebrating the poetry and songs of Leonard Cohen.