MAMA QUILTS

Mama is a quilter
she works her quilts
late at night.

She pieces fabric
trying to get
the pattern right.

Adds the blacks
and then the whites.
Sews in the flower
pieces happy and bright.

She finishes her quilt
just as the sun
shows morning light.

Mama is a quilter
she works her quilts
late at night.

     I recently visited my friend Willa Brigham, two time Emmy Award winning host for the educational television show Smart Start Kids.  Willa is a quilter, and I always love seeing the quilts she works.  She has a studio with hundreds, maybe thousands of different kinds of materials for her quilts.   Fabric in all shades of color and texture.  The best part of our visits is bouncing ideas off each other.  Each idea we have creates another better idea and that is a LOT of fun.
    I think the way Willa puts quilts together is a lot like the way I put poems together.  I have an idea of a message or thought I want to convey and I start figuring out what the pieces are that make up the message.  Then I have to decide on the order of the pieces and figure out what to take out.  Along the way I need to see if the poem is going to follow a pattern or be free verse.  It is all a lot of fun for me.
    Your poetry challenge for today is to write your own quilt poem.  If you need some inspiration you might enjoy my friend Maureen Wartski's blog.  She makes art quilts and then writes haiga to go with them.  Have fun.