Drunkard’s Path block pieced by Patricia Cummings
QUILTING
an original poem by Patricia Cummings
With wild abandon I still stitch away,
while piles of fabric lay in sheer disarray.
I cannot be neat in the midst of a project
and my method of working defies any logic.
A block is too large? I’ll just cut it down.
A block is too small? I’ll have to add on.
This quilt won’t be perfect, it’s not meant to be.
When all’s said and done, it’s an expression of me.
So, I shall not fuss and I shall not fume.
I’m told that for everyone, there always is room.
If not here on earth, then at heaven’s gates.
With that goal in mind, I shall toil till it’s late.
Better times are awaiting, I can’t linger here
but meanwhile my quilting will fill my last years.
As beauty surrounds me, stitch upon stitch,
for another time or place, I’ll no longer itch.
Content to be busy, with no idle hands,
I think of my ancestors from some foreign lands.
Perhaps they made quilts; perhaps they did not.
I’ll never know for sure exactly their lot.
I dream of their lives, some working the looms,
or serving as a mulespinner in factory doom.
Their dreams at the present are forever entombed.
They could never envision the lives from their wombs.
Their joy centered on freedom and that was enough
The road less traveled must always be rough.
From sturdy stock, these folks I hold dear.
They produced many children and held them all near.
And so we continue, their spirits and mine.
We shall be, always, forever entwined.
Life still proceeds in ways not understood.
All we can do is replace evil with good.
Still we press on, and so it shall be.
Each day we draw closer to ETERNITY.
The blessings we cherish will see us all through,
with God’s gentle guidance, and patches of blue.
Copyright 2010. Patricia L. Cummings, Quilter’s Muse Publications, Concord, NH. All Rights Reserved.
