COYOTE MAN CREATES

native american creation tale as my grandmother would share

COYOTE MAN CREATES
on a fine magic alder raft
coyote man sailed the universe
driven by curiosity...
on this long star journey
he met frog man,
who joined him on the raft,
one day coyote man
told frog man he wanted to create a world,
so frog man jumped off the raft and gathered
land from the dust of the stars,
which he gave to coyote man
and coyote man created the world
from the stardust...
 lizard man came to look upon it
and was impressed, but wondered,
will it always be as beautiful as it is now?

coyote man thought about this
and decided he should create a people
to care for the world,
he thought the caretakers should look like himself
but lizard man held up his hands and said,
the caretakers would need hands not paws
if they were to be able to handle the caretaking well,
this truth irritated coyote man and he growled and howled
and snapped at lizard man who became very frightened
and scurried away into the rocks to hide
just as he does to this day...

coyote man called out to other spirits,
"come see this fine world i have made
and help me populate it"...
and

all the spirts came
star woman, grizzly bear woman, fox man,
cougar man and fish man,

 even lizard man returned...

coyote man then told them
to use a splinter of their spirit to create
animals to fill the land,
and,

each one did as directed,
frog man’s splinter became all the frogs all over the world
who still loved jumping into water,
and
grizzly bear woman’s splinter became the grizzly bear,
carrying her love for acorns and berries into the world,
cougar man’s spirit became the cougar who loves hunting the deer and elk,

lizard man became the lizard who still runs into the rock to hide form the coyote...
and

star woman who loved the shine of the abalone shell

became the stars that bless the dark,
all of this was done as coyote man wanted...

then coyote man gathered sticks
and traveled all over his world,
and
everywhere he thought a caretaker should be,
he pushed two sticks into the earth
and
 the sticks became the people
born from the earth and the spirit of coyote man...
when all this was done
coyote man sat back and laughed
and sent his splinter out to become
the coyote who laughs at the moon
and uses the lizzard for his dinner even now...

ah but coyote,
do not be angry,
i am only speaking
of peace and flowers
and other nice things...

Reviews

[Siegfried]

Fascinating journey through ancient thoughts and native imaginations. Thank you for your posting.

[....................]

I agree with JayceeC, Jeannemarie... you really should publish these stories/poems...your tales always draw the reader in and you write with such fluidity, as if simply telling a story :)...well-done, my friend!

[JayceeC]

I think you should make a collection of these folklore stories/poems. They are always beautifully told, and they represent a rich heritage.

[jeannemarie coulter]

thank you for the kind words and advice

[mattavelli]

This was fun, Jeannemarie. Coyote is a real go getter.