Saturday, November 19, 2011

Needle and Thread

I found the button I sewed last night
on my coat in a dead woman's
disused collection. Lost
from a sailor's jacket, it
weighs anchor amid Incan
and Peruvian designs, and replaced
the wooden one I lost last winter.
I'm not sure it's happy among such
exotic simplicity, but it looks eccentric
among the trench
and wool dress coats, and furs
and puffy down jackets on Fifth Ave.

I liked sewing the button on. The needle
and thread left by the seamstress seemed
strangely right to the job,
as though one of her last acts was to
pull the string through the needle
and leave it for this night. She
worked all her life in the sweat
shops among cloth. I think of her
now, crippled in one arm, baking me
cookies when I came home high from parties,
piecing together friendship like she
pieced together cloth in her quilts.

(c) Copyright 2011 Charles David Miller. All rights reserved.

34 comments:

  1. what intriguing write charles..the button from a sailor's jacket from a dead woman's collection...the being exotic while walking still in everyday life.. and then you focus on that woman, let us see her, feel her...really enjoyed this..a lot..

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  3. Very very nice and now one of my favorites of yours.

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  4. Piecing together friendship like she pieced together cloth in her quilts...odd, isn't it, how a little button can pique the memory, the imagry into a canvas of bonding with another...something you perhaps did not see nor realize when the woman was alive. Beautiful write!

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  5. Really enjoyed this, I felt like I was on a journey with that woman. Well done.

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  6. nice..a very interesting piece...my leather jacket was actually give my the son on the dead man that owned it...the interesting thing is all the intersting sotries that now come together in your coat...quilts also hold interesting memories for me...all the stories within each patch...

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  7. Charles I love your poetry for its attention to detail. You take some small detail and contruct a masterpiece from it. I'm going to try to subscribe but blogspot doesn't like me...hopefully. Victoria

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  8. Excellent blend of personification and metaphor, simply told, more effective for it. Your character is vivid and her impress clearly felt.

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  9. the image of her is so vivid both outside and in. nicely done.

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  10. nice...see it was worth it...to pick up other textures and layers...i love quilts...we have one that we pull out mostly in winter cause it is heavy...but each patch tells a story...

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  11. Adored this, especially the first stanza, so evocative. beautiful.

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  12. Beautiful poem, Charles. I really enjoyed it!

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  13. Wonderful. The story very sweet poignant--your details beautiful and unique. k.

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  14. Just as good on the second read. I like to watch men sew--it's such a gender identifying thing, yet most men are very good at it. I feel like the button here is going to have a good life. (And thanks for your kind comment at my place Charles, with which I wholeheartedly agree.)

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  15. I like this very much - touching

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  16. i can just picture that button from the sailor jacket!!

    men sew, men were considered the greatest tailors in many cultures, as men were and still are considered the greatest chefs...but i'm sure the masters did not bother with the buttons...

    3 radio button senryu

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  17. you stitch together so many layers...and the image of her 'pulling the string through the needle to leave it for this night' recalls the eye of the needle and other concepts--without saying as much. That reflects such confidence in your readers. Very nice.

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  18. Awww.. I remember shiny gold buttons with anchors on them too! This lady must have been a wonderful woman and a truly lovely person to have as a friend.
    Wonderfully weaved or, sewn... again Charles.

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  19. That was quite a tale, well woven tale! And all because of the button.

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  20. I love how the button has a private and public life, almost allegorical, and is the conceit which relationships orbit around. Wonderful!

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  21. I like the finding and sewing the button. The details of the coat and seamstress making the quilt are exceptional ~ Enjoyed your share Charles ~

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  22. Rightly said Charles! We often wonder what that wonderful lady had gone through in raising her kids and the family. The ladies that sustained a man's heart is a rare find so they say!

    Hank

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  23. A fitting tribute to a seamstress. Embroideries now a lost art lying dormant in thrift shops deserve to recognised in verse.

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  24. Charles, Charles, Charles... Why do you suprise me so?

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  25. was great to re-read... a fantastic write charles

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  26. I did wonder where this was going for a time, but enjoyed the ride - and the last couplet was perfect heaven home.

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  27. Nice work, and love the tale interwoven in the action of sewing on the button. Really enjoyed reading this. :)

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  28. Very skillful, the inversion of structure adding to the quixotic and well as the exotic here. I thought your word choices were delicious and the button wore the spotlight throughout.

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  29. I love the way you pull the needle in and out, tweaking at threads here and there, till we end up feeling we know what's essential to know about your subject...

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  30. The stories buttons could tell if buttons could tell stories. You started my mind on wondering.

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  31. I like how it all came together... great piece!!

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  32. "I found the button I sewed last night
    on my coat in a dead woman's
    disused collection"

    "I liked sewing the button on. The needle
    and thread left by the seamstress seemed
    strangely right to the job,
    as though one of her last acts was to
    pull the string through the needle
    and leave it for this night."

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