The Shield That Was Touched By Pretty Mouth - by N. Scott Momaday

Waterstrider was the son of Crooked Back, and like his father he was crippled from birth. He could not stand up straight but must be always bent like a juniper twig. In the time of the spilling moon he kept to himself on the river, grieving over the death of the girl Pretty Mouth, who had been trampled by horses. Enemies came to the river, and Waterstrider frightened them away with his shield, stealing two of their best weapons. His shield was made by Many Magpies, a young man among the shieldmakers.
In the night, in the moonlit water, the girl Pretty Mouth appeared to Waterstrider. She was beautiful and graceful beyond his belief. Her supple body was curved and shone like the moon. She approached upon the bank and stood very close to Waterstrider. She reached out and touched her fingers to the shield. And then the time of Waterstrider's grief was ended.

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into something better

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

from Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver
© Mary Oliver