quotidian: “We were never perfect.” (Joy Harjo)

Posted on by theresakishkan

cat and moon

1.
Yesterday, sewing, I realized this patchwork is nearly finished. I’ve followed the blue sashiko thread on trails, followed it as it stitched spirals in French cottons, Japanese cottons, some scraps from the past. The news is never good. Weapons, threats, the difficult aggressions. A quilt becomes a proposition, it becomes an archive, it becomes a map. I am mapping my next life.

In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for
those who would climb through the hole in the sky.
 
My only tools were the desires of humans as they emerged
from the killing fields, from the bedrooms and the kitchens.
 
 
2.
Last night, the moon over Mount Hallowell, plump and silver, a dimple in her right shoulder.
 
 
3.
This week, we’ve taken to saying to each other, This time next week, we’ll be watching Othello at the Globe in London. We’ll be walking Regent’s Canal. We’ll be landing, we’ll be buying Cornish yarg  cheese, wrapped in nettles, at the Waitrose on Marchmont Street, we’ll be looking at the textiles exhibit at the Barbican.
 
The week after, we’ll be in Porto. The week after that, in Granada. (We’ve taken to saying.)
 
Granada

4.
Sewing, I am finding my way through the sadness of a world beyond my understanding. Each stitch could heal a wound, could bring two torn edges together. In the light from a western window, I thread 3 needles at a time, snip the blue thread. I am almost finished the quilt.

We were never perfect.
 
Yet, the journey we make together is perfect on this earth who was
once a star and made the same mistakes as humans.
 
We might make them again, she said.
 
Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end.
 
You must make your own map.

Note: the passages of poetry are from Joy Harjo’s “A Map to the Next World”

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Published by theresakishkan

I'm a writer living in paradise.

9 thoughts on “quotidian: “We were never perfect.” (Joy Harjo)”

    1. I don’t think it was anything you did or didn’t do! I think there’s been a subtle change with the WordPress platform and I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. But thanks, Anne.

  3. Theresa, it sounds like the most wonderful trip, especially as I remember when a trip important to you had to be cancelled. A literary talk, London, family in Portugal … can’t wait to read all about it. I’ll be in London for a few days in April, so will follow for some tips. Bon voyage! (This is Beth, by the way.)

    1. Ah, yes, the trip that was cancelled. That was to Ukraine in fall of 2018, a health concern intervened, but we were able to go in fall of 2019, a wondrous trip in every way. This one promises to be really interesting. (We’re seeing the RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro, with puppets. That should be an experience!)

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