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Toward Conception

Toward Conception

By Sherman Alexie

for Diane

we kneel in this stream
as mother, as father

cup our hands
and drink from this water

because we believe the salmon
who were spawned in this bed

will someday return
tattered, exhausted, alive

oh, the glorious things
we do to survive

Copyright © 1996 by Sherman Alexie.  All rights reserved.

Prairie Schooner, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Summer 1997), p. 9

Biography

a photo of Sherman Alexie Photo by

Will Austin

Sherman Alexie is the author of twenty-two books, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature; War Dances, winner of the 2010 PEN Faulkner Award; and the poetry collection Face (Hanging Loose P). His new collection of stories is Blasphemy (Grove P). He lives with his family in Seattle.

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