Nimbawaadaan Akiing / I Dream a World
Nimbawaadaan akiing
I dream a world
atemagag biinaagami
of clean water
gete-mitigoog
ancient trees
gaye gwekaanimad
and changing winds.
Nimbawaadaan akiing
I dream a world
izhi-mikwendamang
of ones who remember
nandagikenindamang gaye
who seek the truth and
maamwidebwe’endamang waabang
believe in tomorrow together.
Nimbawaadaan akiing
I dream a world
izhi-biimiskobideg giizhigong
where our path in the sky
waabandamang naasaab
can be seen as clearly as
gaa-izhi-niibawid wiijibemaadizid
the place where our neighbor once stood.
Copyright © 2021 by Margaret Noodin. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 20, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
This poem appeared in American Poets Magazine vol. 61.
“This poem was written after hearing Kwame Alexander and Rachel Martin talk about Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ‘I Have a Dream’ which was inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem ‘I Dream a World.’ With all we’ve lost and learned this past year, and all that remains to be repaired, I thought perhaps we should all sit down and dream harder and more often with more clarity and infinite diversity.”
—Margaret Noodin
Margaret Noodin
Margaret Noodin is the author of Gijigijigaaneshi Gikendaan (Wayne State University Press, 2020) and Weweni (Wayne State University Press, 2015), both collections of bilingual poems in Anishinaabemowin and English, and Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature (Michigan State University Press, 2014).