How Coyote Woman Shook Out the World - Gail Onion

[Larry Robinson]

How Coyote Woman Shook Out the World

Coyote Woman shook out the world from her shawl
blue threads, green threads, red and yellow threads spiraling diving  
whistling  through the nothing yet made, became ground and ocean. She planted
black, brown and white seeds as many as her heart could hold
gardening the Earth to make a holy home,
the signal beam of hope in the Milky Way.
Coyote Woman, first friend of the Earth the first music,
danced all things together
odd, imperfect wildings, kith and kin, song and sounds
half light ones and dark ones, thin ones and thick ones and golden glow hollow ways 
where Coyote Woman
peeks into what is, still shaping  wonders  into never finished creation.
Friends, you gave me a basket of socks and persimmons.
I slept in a bed of soft grasses, oak leaves, fox fur,
owl feathers.
Friends, you listened both as witnesses and windows.
You have taken in your hands the corners of my life 
swept fresh the magic carpet of my self 
for the next transporting sky ward, in ward ride,
shaken my soul awake 
reunited blood and bones and muscles
dilated eyes, ears and heart.
Friends, you have given my life shine.
You have given my life sweetness.
You have given me a way to continue on past
the unbearable summons
where I had given up.
Friend, this, you tell me is what friends do.
You have surrounded
a dark time with beauty and music and love.
This is the legacy of Coyote Woman, the first Friend
of the Earth, for all that is here are kith and kin,
here to do what friends do; make sweet the bitter
make bearable the unbearable, and make more beauty 
of what we cannot bear.  

	- Gail Onion