What Coyote Gives
Coyote gives you
what you want, gives you the moon
as she snuffs the edge
of the world right there
in your yard. She gives you eyes
for the shape of things
and a way to find
my scent as I pass nearby.
She gives you a tail
and sure footed grasp
of the wild life just outside
the door to your heart.
March 9, 2010 10:10 AM
"I cannot help you understand. In the realm of the ultimate, each person must figure out things for themselves. Remember that. Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received."
- Tom Robbins in
Jitterbug Perfume
Your pem is lovely; I am so glad you seem to value the coyote rather than wanting to rush out and shoot it.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy for me. I don't have chickens in the game, nor do I have my garbage strewn around. Also, we used to have a great many possum and raccoon in the area, all gone now. I understand they were targeted by disease and wiped out. We didn't do it. I don't really miss the possum but I do miss the raccoon.
ReplyDeleteCoyote as seen by many in the First Nations is a favorite doorway to the divine in my heart.
We have the Eastern Coyote here, larger, rangy, more like a wolf at times. At night I hear them singing in the fields outside the window, and count cats when I do. Our coons are returning now after years away, and we've never seen possums up here although I know they're around. what lives here, is welcome. We work around each other.
ReplyDeleteBoth the coons and the possum were subject to a severe disease epidemic and have largely disappeared from this area. I once had my garage door open for the cats and then had a plethora of possums because they had shelter and (cat)food. One time I caught a possum who had climbed into a box full of shipping peanuts. Only a bit of her back was showing. His? I closed the lid and shook it violently while carrying it outside. Then I poured out the peanuts and one very pissed off possum who never came back.
Deletethis is, by the way, a lovely poem. lyrical, careful.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Apparently others like it too. There were over ten thousand hits on this poem in the first years of its posting. I know it was something about the way google treated it too, but still this means people clicked on through.
DeleteI should also say, there is a poem in the world that serves as a model for this poem. It was not written by me. I was so taken with it - about a wolf - that I have adopted the concept for my own. I found it on a website for a high school poetry appreciation course.
Delete