Art at Dawn

Art at Dawn

As nighttime sky turns pale pink
with a yawn of dreamy dawn,
the sunrise spreads her whispering light
lacing throughout the woodland.

Behind thickets, hidden antlers
stir in the morning mist.
A bull elk rises to the Robins' song
and stomps his grassy bed.

Light falls dapple on his noble stance,
his breath hovers in the crisp air.
Ears stand guard at the ice-edged stream
while he drinks from the trickle.

Overhead, birdsong takes flight
at the mere snap of a twig.
Bounding hooves ricochet upstream,
each moment splashing out a new
water color in nature's gallery.


(Aubade is a poem genre portraying the arrival of dawn. An aubade greets the morning in one of three ways:
1. By a celebration of wildlife
2. By the awakening of lovers
3. The arrival of dawn, when the speaker must depart from his lover