Made For Us

Hey,

Thanks for taking the time to read the poem on my tumblr.  Nikki Giovanni is a great African American poet who is still alive and teaches English at Virginia Tech.  Her poem, “Quilts”, is about growing older.  The speaker realizes that they are no longer fresh and new nor even able to serve the purpose they once did.  They yearn for their younger days when they, like quilts, could “keep water/From seeping through,” or accomplish something great or needed.  However, the speaker is old, perhaps worn out, and tired—much like a used piece of fabric.  The speaker parallels their desire to be remembered and loved in their old age with the dream of tattered cloth finding a new place as a square patch among others that could create a quilt, still full of love and warmth.  The speaker hopes to go on, even though they are “frayed and strained.”

It’s really quite a lovely thought, that somehow we could be gathered together with other older, perhaps weary, people who feel useless to create something new, something that could bring warmth and security to someone who needed it.

I hope that helps :)

If you’d like, there’s a couple more poems and short bio of her here.