Making Quiltwork
Making Quiltwork
Original Text
Ortiz, Simon J. Out There Somewhere. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2002: 106.
1Like the coat of many colors, the letters, scraps,
2all those odds and bits we live by, we have come
3to know. Folks here live by the pretty quilts
4they make, more than make actually, more than pretty.
5They are histories, their lives and their quilts.
6Indian people who have been scattered, sundered
7into odds and bits, determined to remake whole cloth.
8Nothing quits. It changes many times, sometimes
9to something we don't want, but we again gather
10the pieces, study them, decide, make decisions again,
11yes, and fit them to color, necessity, conditions,
12taste and choice, and start again. Our lives are quilts,
13letters, odds and bits, scraps, but always the thread
14loving through them, compassionate knowledge
15that what we make is worth it and will outlast
16anything that was before and will be worthy
17of any people's art, endeavor, and final triumph.
18Here, look at my clothes, quilts, coats of many colors!
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004