Once, in Hawaii, Ten years ago and more I helped to carve a Native Sweat Out of the rock of old volcano flows North was a hole To hold the willow poles And to the south and west and east Every pole had its own hole Sacred four directions And, in the center, a hole for the rocks You put them in glowing hot and cover the poles with canvas or lots of cloth Tobacco ties of different colors Represent the prayers of all of our fellows We chose a place With a natural face Where two fault lines crossed To mark an "X" While the man chipped away With chisel and hammer To make the place where the rocks would go I cleaned out the "X" To help the water drain in a natural flow Following along the line That led from the "x" to the volcano's southern flanks First the fault line changed To make an "E" Like a jagged "Z" Then a small "v" Was revealed to me Next came an "o" Then an "L" began to show The top of the "L" toward volcano did point Right back in line with the "X" And I stopped right there My mind "out of joint" With the message from Mother Earth Herself had carved this message in the fault I felt myself rejoicing And after that, I had no Doubt!