Early morning
stars,
so sharp
they cut through
the blue-black back drop
of icy air,
hang above
staccato yips and cries
of coyotes
so close,
as if I could
nearly
reach them
if I stretched – or
perhaps they could reach me, teach me
the desperate, wild
longing
in their cries
In Other Words 
The coyotes were a pleasant surprise, Mary. Yes, we can learn from them and Nature’s other creatures. Nice thoughts, I like your “early morning” icy air findings.
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Thanks Jim.
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I love this especially the alliteration in “the blue-black-back drop of icy air, hang above.” Wow! ❤️
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Thanks Sanaa. I was hoping it wasn’t too much.
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Coyote yip/howls in icy predawn air…a sound, once heard, unforgotten forever.
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Yes. We have quite a few where I live, but I’ve never heard them quite so close.
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Yes! That’s for sure.
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Howling good poem! I live in a quiet residential area, but on some nights a chorus of coyotes rings out…and they have to be very close because they are quite loud…but unseen…like the unseen poet with his longing cries.
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Thanks Tim. It’s really something to experience, as you know.
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I love the desire to connect expressed here. I’ve felt it too, looking out on a night sky.
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I would guess you have that by your name, Kestril! Thank you.
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You set the scene beautifully in the first stanza, Mary, with the sharp stars and the blue-black back drop of icy air, so cold and still – and then you cut it with ‘staccato yips and cries’. I could hear them.
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Thanks Kim. It’s an eerie sound and feeling.
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Love the thought of being awake to something like this… the way you have used rhymes made the poem move I think
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Thank you, Bjorn.
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desperate, wild longing…. absolutely!! Love the close.
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Beautiful, vivid picture…love it!!
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Thank you!
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Nature, beautiful, wild, inspiring..Winter certainly has brought out the beautiful wild in this piece.
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Thank you Susie.
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The stars and visible planets seem so much brighter in the cold depths of winter. And the coyotes….we have them here too.
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