2008
Quilt
Composed by 
David Conte
David Conte Text by 
Diane Thiel
Diane Thiel Everyone Sang Song Collection
"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.
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
Audio
“Quilt” (from “Everyone Sang”)
Tim Krol (baritone) & Steven Bailey (piano)5:12
Sheet Music