SHARON BUTALA'S FIRST collection of "small essays or meditations," The Perfection of the Morning, focussed on what she terms an "intense search for some truths I could live by." Now, in Coyote's Morning Cry, Butala turns her unshrinking inward eye on 11 matters of spirituality." This slim but insightful volume contains 20 brief essays on subjects that matter to Butala, who sees life as a lesson in "soul-building" and pays close attention to the messages hidden in her dreams. Lest this raise any anti-New Age hackles, let me hasten to add that Butala is no would-be guru out to fleece the gullible. Her aim is to discover truth, and to tell it as well as she can, for reasons that seem artistically impeccable. Witness this passage, from a piece titled "The Rewards of Vulnerability":

When someone, in this case me, opens up her heart, searches deeply and tries to express in simple, honest terms what she found there, good people may fear for her She may even fear for herself. But it remains, in my opinion, the only, the best thing to do. What are books for'? I ask myself ... I believe in books; I believe in them as a tool to lift humanity out of darkness and fear, and I believe in the role of the artist/shaman, who achieves sometimes ... a link with the powers that create the universe. Nothing else but the opening of the heart speaks to people in a way that matters, that holds the potential to change people's lives, because they recognize the common humanity ... in the words of the writer telling as much truth as she can manage about her life.

Subjects on which Butala choose to muse in this volume include learning to quiet the mind, feeling alienated, experiencing the particular quality of a place, valuing age and one's aging body, understanding dreams, examining our moods, battling with the ego, and finding beauty and awe in ancient petroglyphs or a chorus of coyotes on a frosty morning.

"My concept of my life," Butala tells us, is "to reach a degree of clarity, of... transparency, a transparent life, so that what I say, what I do, what I am, what I believe, are all one and the same thing. And truth is the first step, the path itself and the last step."

Her commitment to truth is both the strength and the weakness of this book. With her sincerity never in question, many of Butala's perceptions and insights easily make connections between her individual experience and the "common humanity" she shares with her readers. On the other hand, in her determination to be true to her own self and her hard-won "concept of life," Butala aligns herself with all those "original thinkers" who spend their lives re-inventing the wheel. Readers well versed in the currently burgeoning literature on "matters of spirituality" may find their sympathies are for Butala, as much as with her.