The Stuff of Quilts

by Sandra Bounds 

Quilts are practical art.
Carefully cut, precisely pieced
together and hand sewn
into designs of great beauty –
Attic Windows, Card Tricks, Evening Star,
Jacob’s Ladder, Old Maid’s Puzzle, Windmill –
these lovely coverings keep families
warm when Winter’s winds howl and rage.

Quilts are family memoirs.
Each block, indeed, each swatch of fabric
evokes memories of family members
and triggers stories of dear ones.
Story follows story until
a family history unfolds.

Quilts warm bodies and hearts
when they grow cold and lonely.
Every stitch whispers fragrant warmth of love
to those snuggled beneath these works of art.

Sandra Bounds was born in Mississippi and lives in Macon. She has a Master of Arts in English and has taught in both high school and community college. An active member of the Mississippi Poetry Society, she was its 2005 Poet of the Year, and the society published a chapbook of her poetry to honor that selection. She has won many awards in contests sponsored by the society and has been published in such journals as Art Gulf Coast, The Lyric, The Road Not Taken, Sharing, The Well-Tempered Sonnet and Westward Quarterly. Read her former poems published in Deep South here.