Quilt

"Quilt" is the third song of David Conte's song cycle Everyone Sang. The cycle is for baritone and piano and sets four songs by various poets.

The audio selection features Tim Krol, baritone, and Steven Bailey, piano. Used with the permission of the composer.

Date: 2008Composer: David ConteText: Diane ThielSong Collection: Everyone Sang

Print vitals & song text

Text

Quilt
by Diane Thiel

At night this quiet covers me,
grown ragged on the center seam,
dividing all this history.
I touch the patches always known,
the ones they wrapped me in, passed down
for far too long for anyone
to still remember what was cut,
that it was once a blouse, a skirt
she wore the night he took her heart.
I touch the fields I thought I knew
and smooth the places healed into
each other, at the ridges sewn
with careful secrets mouthed for all
the years she couldn’t tell a soul.

A version of “Quilt” appeared in Diane Thiel’s
Echolocations (Story Line Press, 2000).
“Quilt” © Copyright by Diane Thiel.

Related Information

Books

Audio

Track:

    Sheet Music

    Everyone Sang

    Composer(s): David Conte

    Song(s): 1. Homecoming
    2. Entrance
    Quilt
    4. Everyone Sang

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