| |
|
sunning on clothes lines
at the antique store
ten or twelve quilts
breath on the breeze
hum with stories
told at bees where
busy fingers
thimbled strong
knew the passage
of each tiny stitch
knew the patterns
how they fell
in the gathering darkness
of afternoon storms
proprietors rush
to gather in arms
all the scraps of ties
party dresses
Sunday go to
meeting clothes
collected in the rows
of patchwork design
then pile them warm
in stacks like harvest hay
From Zen Fishing and Other Southern Pleasures (Ocean Publishing, 2005).
Used with the author's permission.
|
Dorothy K. Fletcher retired in 2007 after 35 years of teaching high school English in Jacksonville, Florida. Her poetry and articles have appeared in nearly a hundred publications, and she has written and had published seven books. A former columnist for The Florida Times Union, Dorothy has written six Jacksonville histories, the first sof which earned her a Preservation Award from the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission in 2011. At this point in her writing career, she has moved into fiction. Her latest novel, The Chambermaid, is set in the 1564 colony of Fort Caroline, which was located in the Jacksonville area. Dorothy still livees in Jacksonville with her husband, Hardy, close to their children and grandchildren. Learn more about her here.
|
|
vmidge@hotmail.com:
Dorothy, what a pleasure to read this and garner the familiar image of quilts on the line. I remember quilts from my childhood as stitched melodies of memories, not perfect, and perhaps in the world's eyes, not beautiful, but providing warmth and solace on cold Buffalo winter nights. My mother digging them out of a chest in the attic, washing them and drying them in the September sun never fails to make me smile. I now live near Amish families and see the bright colors of their quilts that contrast their plain garb and believe they put into those quilts the music of their hearts, and in the patterns rigid but rhythmical, the dancing their feet dare not do. Thank you for sharing this poem with the world, and bringing a half forgotten memory home to make my day a bit brighter!
Posted 11/02/2010 04:56 AM
|
|
|
|
My Cart 
.jpg)
