Featured Poem: By Hand

By Lorraine Walker Williams
Member-at-large

 

Worked by loving hands, the quilt

hangs on the wall next to my bed.

 

Precisely cut and sewn, a mélange of

intense blue and green, the quilt suggests

 

water interspersed with turtles

hemmed in by indigo borders.

 

Turtles, making their way over sand-

crushed shells in and out of the sea.

 

Threads connect this marine world;

simplicity defines stitched curving lines,

 

honoring the space, preserving patterns.

These turtles, symbols of longevity,

 

give comfort to my aging bones,

remind what hands pull together, mend

 

together, make whole from scraps discarded…

can fit together in this fractured world.

6 comments

  1. Andrea Walker says:

    Lorraine, I enjoyed visualizing this poem with its intense aquatic colors and suggestion of turtles (one of my favorite sea creatures). The comparison at the end of making something for a fragmented world is comforting as is a quilt.

  2. Nice job on this – great metaphor. I quilt also and it’s such a terrific pastime. I have made a quilt for my first three grandchildren when they graduated from high school. Hope I can last for the next six. 😀

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