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You Are My Patchwork Quilt
by Alex SmythHere are the pastel greens and pinks of baby powder and cozy rocking chair feedings.
The soft textures of petal skin and downy hair, embroidered with the pattern of my soul.
There are the primary red/blue/yellow of discovery. When your mind was a flash card
Demanding the answer to everything it saw/heard/touched.
This cool turquoise for summer revelries at the pool, where we were hailed daily
for our bountiful knapsack of goodies, towels and spare change, freely shared with summer orphans.
Then the wildly patterned fluorescents of the strange and vibrant teenage years. The music, friends,
Language you presented with pugnacity for our quilt, so I sewed firmly in place with family binding.
And here, at the unexpected croping of our family tree, the black velvet depression,
Irrevocably sewn with a locking chain stitch. By the time I sorrow sewed this, my quilt was done.
Last seen, first remembered; no wonder your need to turn away and find your own colors in the world.
Now I stand, a lone oak, securing roots ever deeper in the warm loam of memories.
Arms branching out to the promising sunshine and loving dew kiss of each new day.
Forseeing your return to spread your quilt in my shade; new families lounging, reading, napping.
Children growing with laughter like birdsong, with eyes like patchwork quilts.
06/21/2003 Author's Note: For Johnny and Carrie, my own perfect quilts.
Posted on 06/21/2003
Copyright © 2024 Alex Smyth
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Agnes Eva on 06/22/03 at 01:27 AM mmm, wraps around you like a carefully made, well-worn family legacy of a blanket quilt, i like the merging of colors with history. the long lines lend themselves well to the topic (poem looks rather like a large comfey quilt) |
| Posted by Kate Demeree on 06/22/03 at 02:35 AM I once had one of those quilts and loved it.... during my growth to adult hood it was lost in the many moves along the way, and I still miss it. I love the rich colors and fabrics coupled with deep meaning in this poem and patchwork quilts. |
| Posted by Max Bouillet on 06/23/03 at 10:33 PM A wonderful poem with great life imagery... thanks for sharing. |
| Posted by Mara Meade on 06/24/03 at 12:08 AM Sewn with a mother's hearthands... All the years these pieces lazy-lay between, around us as we talked and laughed about our own childhoods. Now you have stitched them together so beautifully. I know your embroidery as its sewn all over my own soul... but your children have the best of you and your efforts. Exquisite, Alex. Poignant and exquisite. |
| Posted by Jean Mollett on 06/24/03 at 06:35 AM Hi Alex,
It's beautiful. What a wonder way to describe the love for her family. Just beautiful. I love quilts homemade, specially when it comes from the heart. Some families take a piece of each persons clothes and makes it too. Jean |
| Posted by Jean Mollett on 06/24/03 at 06:37 AM Your family, maybe your daughter will do the same for her family someday. Like you did for yours.
Jean |
| Posted by Ken Harnisch on 06/24/03 at 02:57 PM as elegant and lovely a quilt as has ever been laid before a reader's eyes, Alex...delicate and yet powerful in the way it reaches in and stays on the heart and the mind! |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 06/24/03 at 04:16 PM A truly marvelous read, and strong testament to unique poetic imagery and descriptiveness!! |
| Posted by David R Spellman on 06/24/03 at 11:25 PM You've managed to stitch together here quite an assemblage of images and emotions to create the quintessential quilt which binds the fabric of all of our lives. Wonderfully done! |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 06/25/03 at 02:10 AM Wonderful analogies. Well developed thought. A tender and loving tribute to family. A great read! |
| Posted by Vimal Rony on 06/26/03 at 02:10 AM WOW this is amazingly knitted, strewn with jewels that stands out and glows on it's own. |
| Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 06/28/03 at 05:19 PM to walk through this landscape and not feel the tear's well plush 'pon the cheek, then the rush the streaming o'er the cheeks ledge, jealousying Niagara. |
| Posted by Rommel Cruz on 07/27/03 at 03:14 PM just wonderful! a beautiful patchwork quilt indeed |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 09/15/03 at 02:11 AM I must say I enjoyed very much reading this again. I attended two viewings this week for extended family members. Both ladies in their late eighties, matriarchs. Their stories have been lived here on earth as they've changed their place of residence. |
| Posted by Don Coffman on 10/11/03 at 03:28 AM A gorgeous quilt indeed, each square a cherished memory. Your weaving of this poetry is exquisite. |
| Posted by Mo Couts on 06/28/11 at 11:04 PM There's nothing like a beautiful quilt to keep you warm...just like this one =) |
| Posted by Mara Meade on 10/18/11 at 12:56 PM Brought tears to my eyes again. |
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