Sewing Lessons

by Judith A. Rypma

In her latest chapbook, SEWING LESSONS, Judith Rypma weaves word tapestries that reveal and respond to the patterns of our lives. Weaving and embroidering have served as a metaphor for creation for centuries, and each poem beautifully follows that tradition. These tightly crafted poems trace women’s progress from ancient looms and spindles to more modern struggles with pleated skirts, and botched home economics classes. Like the Three Fates, the speaker measures and cuts the threads of life in a poignant and powerful examination of how the lives of women and, as importantly, female artists, are stitched together.

38 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2013

Reviews

[FutureCycle Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are the publisher, so all of our authors get five stars from us. Excerpts:


THE SINGER

Grew up hating
that machine:
black curse
in every woman’s home.

Foot pedals
intended to stop and start
stitch and hem
make cloth music.

Probably how the manufacturer
came up with that name
though I fumbled
each time I touched it
failed to carry a tune.

Pricked fingers.
Sewed legs to arms
zippers to hems
precursor
to the discord:

silks and satins
I’d never own
baby clothes
never needed
lullabies unsung

high notes
I’d never reach.


PULLING STITCHES

A life, too
can be explicated—

pulling, unraveling
darning, stitching

thin threads that connect us
hems that rise and fall

sag, fray
if you make too many errors

use the wrong fabric
pick a poor pattern.