Rising

In Rising, poet Jane Beal goes in search of America. She sings the Cherokee Creation story, imagining dialogue between Sky-Woman and First Man. She remembers being a child and exchanging her blood with a Cherokee friend, and then, years later, the birth of that friend''s son, Usquaniqdi, whose name means "miracle."In her poems, she gives voice to women from American history such as the mother Poca...