I Hear the Coyote

From the Author's Afterword: "... The stream flows, just as existence flows. At the crest of a ripple, a standing wave in the current, I offer this cluster of sayings. As I remarked in another preface twenty-five years ago, the individual poems are "...based on real things and experiences, for otherwise what would be their purpose?" The decades which generated the verses contained in *I Hear the Coyote* are now far behind me, though in some ways the interval which has passed seems no more than momentary. For a time yet, perhaps, the miracle of awareness continues to allow me to work at my art. When Coyote gives on a strong suggestion, after all, *one does not think to count horses* nor to dispute the advice thus given. I cannot hold with those who roll their eyes, shake their heads, and utter the traditional pronunciamento, 'Whatever Coyote tells you, do the opposite.' Bill Hotchkiss, Woodpecker Ravine, October 17, 2002"