The poem series
Paintings based on a poem by Tayler Buffington. The Poem was Gifted to the artist and the preceding paintings were created to visually express each of the four stanzas.
I came as a coyote
for a hundred years I lived
in the belly of a cave
I heard the holy madman pray
and ate your children
one by one
I dashed my bitter teeth
to dust to see
what I had done
I came as a crow
For a thousand years I flew
Through the desert of the sky
I chased a hawk
Of morning,
Plucking out his bonesick eye
And taught the swollen
Tongue to speak
The language no one knew
I came as a rattle snake
for ten thousand years I slept
dreaming in the fire
I taught you music,
gave you myth
I showed you how to die
The promise that I keep
will kill
your secret where it lies
I came to you as a spider
for a million years I wove
my web within your heart
I made the world
and caught it there
I heard it howling in the dark
the stories the you tell
are mine, and of
my whole you are a part
