Today’s list-making prompted a list of a few of my favorite animals, as well as some animals that intimidate me, like the coyotes I hear baying outside my window on cold winter nights.

When it came time to write, I combined a few of the animals. Coyote and owl became a “coyowl” and deer and wolf became “the deer wolf.”

After two playful snippets about these fantasmagorical animals, I wrote about a childhood experience of a dozen of us kids packed into Leonard Davenport’s Volvo to go “moose hunting” (with our eyes; no guns involved) in Fundy Park in New Brunswick, Canada.

I only realized now that the piece about the coyowl appears on the journal page with a Jack London quotation. Somehow this seems quite fitting. Here’s my whimsical exploration of the coyowl:

The coyowl can fly from any part of the unvierse down

to just outside your bedroom window

where he alights

and who-howls

and howl-hoots

into your dreams

stalking

stealing its prey right out of your mind and

flying away

with one of your burdens.

You awaken lighter

free

and wonder what he was

who scared you,

took from you,

liberated you.

a creature of the night?

predator?

ally?

so strange and yet

familiar

in an unfamiliar way.

Consider today’s prompts an invitation to leave realism behind. Tap into your magic. What did Day 5’s prompt generate for you? Share an excerpt, insight, question or image.

And if you want some other worldly inspiration, here are some coyotes howling.

Wondering where the prompt is? You’ll find it in The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day.

Go write!