Poetry by Madeleine Mysko
Crazy Quilt
To keep from crazy then—from cracked,
from broken—is this the work?
To make something from the desires
both to hold and to be held
(as in together, as in of a piece)?
Think of crazy quilt:
the hand holding the remnants,
the hand stitching, piecing, making—
out of thrift, perhaps, but also,
it seems to me now, out of love.
Crazy quilt: gesture that yearns
in the making, that works toward
warmth, a comforter to stuff with
straw or, better, with eider down to
lay upon the child asleep in the loft beneath
the low roof, while beyond the dormer window
snow has blanketed the fields and,
along the fence, the beds of lilies.
You know the fabric by heart—patterned
calico, summer flowers in yellow and pink
and lavender, scarlet leaves, snowflakes
against indigo blue, tiny stars
between the patchwork seams.
To keep from crazy then: poetry
as sturdy thread, stitching forward and
back, securing itself, somehow.
Art Information
- “Labyrinth” © Jean Wolff; used by permission.
Madeleine Mysko is the author of two novels, Bringing Vincent Home and Stone Harbor Bound, and a poetry collection, Crucial Blue (Cherry Grove Collections, 2019). With three other Maryland poets, she is also the author of In the Margins: A Conversation in Poetry. She is a recipient of individual artist awards in both poetry and fiction from the State of Maryland. Presently she serves as coordinating editor of the “Reflections” column for American Journal of Nursing, and teaches writing part-time at Goucher College.
