An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

From the 23rd US Poet Laureate, and the first Native American to hold that honor, Joy Harjo is a national treasure.

Here’s a beautiful one from the book, transcribed from The Poetry Foundation.

Granddaughters

I was a thought, a dream, a fish, a wing 

And then a human being 

When I emerged from my mother's river 

On my father's boat of potent fever 

I carried a sack of dreams from a starlit dwelling 

To be opened when I begin bleeding 

There's a red dress, deerskin moccasins 

The taste of berries made of promises 

While the memories shift in their skins 

At every moon, to do their ripening