Joy Before Night

By Terry Eaton.

158 Pages | A Quest Original 1988 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835606341.

The Last Years of American Indian Writer Evelyn Eaton.

Many tribes, including the Nova Scotia Micmacs (from whom author Evelyn Eaton claimed descent) views crows and ravens as 'little black messengers of the Great Spirit or Author of Mankind'. Evelyn Eaton was known as Grandmother, to others as prolific writer, poet, world traveler, lecturer, and teacher. At age eight, she published her first poem in the Montreal Star. She became an American citizen in 1944 and served as war correspondent. She taught at Columba University, Mary Washington University, Sweet Briar College, Ohio State, Pershing College, and Deep Spring College. She first encountered Paiute and Arapaho medicine people in 1962. She subsequently immersed herself in study of Native American spiritual traditions. Her many books include:

• Snowy Earth Comes Gliding
• I Send A Voice
• The Shaman And The Medicine Wheel
• Go Ask The River
• The Trees And The Fields Went The Other Way.

From Chapter III (p. 27 & 28):

" Four times think before you cross,
behind your elders or before -
for the grass springs back
more sweetly in their wake.

Oh my mother. Grandmother to my four.
I watch your stately march to that place of surrender -
the gold-west hill, still warm in the hint of a fading star.

I see you - at my distance - painted stick in hand
The hem of your dress feathers the ground
as you move in rhythm, to the ancient tunes.

And the lonely heart beats time,
drums its rune of love
for the grasses where those feet have danced.

For the places of young light,
for the cliffs of greener songs.
For the crater of strong winds,
Summer lightning. Storms.

All pilgrim paths and waterways from which you've spun:
North, East and South to West, my mother
Rainbow to my suns. "