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Missing Pieces
by Chris Sorrenti
all the toys I valued
as a child
long disappeared
a favorite shirt
treasured
for its unique design
reluctantly discarded
pets giving years
of companionship
forever departed
cherished friends
made along the way
relocated
falling out
never to be seen again
but here on the page
nothing’s lost
all the pieces of my life
woven together
tight as silk
in shades of
pleasure and pain
and when I too
am discarded
by this world
will others still gaze
upon this quilt?
and say
now there was a poet!
so that as I lost them
did the one
who wrote me
into his book of life
gather up
all that I’ve held dear
to be stitched
into the final product?
© 1999
2,390 hits as of September 2026
01/11/2008
Author's Note: Published in the chapbook, Twenty poems for twenty years, a tribute to Juan O'Neill, edited by John Woodsworth, Ottawa, Canada (2001). ISBN 0-9730202-2-9.
Posted on 01/11/2008
Copyright © 2026 Chris Sorrenti
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by David Garner on 01/11/08 at 05:36 PM I really like this. It does weave together and/or gets sewn together like a quilt. "will others still gaze
upon this quilt?
and say
now there was a poet!" Wonderful lines here... |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 01/11/08 at 10:35 PM ...chris, the machine ate my first response...maybe it was too syrupy, this is a wonderful write, this is a tall pome, pa'dner, put my name next to yours for the 'membrance of good poets, ahahahaha peace, chaz |
| Posted by Coleman Demiurge on 01/12/08 at 05:18 AM Wonderful indeed... I found stanza two particularly evocative. You ask some good questions here, and hopefully one day we will get an answer to them. Excellent work. |
| Posted by Anne Engelen on 01/12/08 at 08:45 AM I always wanted a quilt, but hadn't found the one I like yet. This one is a keepsake :) |
| Posted by David R Spellman on 01/12/08 at 01:11 PM Very well done Chris. I liked the way you present the reality of life's losses that we all experience. Also like and appreciate how you say that we can retrieve and save those once lost things of our lives by writing of them and weaving them "in shades of pleasure and pain."
Good stuff! |
| Posted by Wendy Sparling on 01/14/08 at 05:38 PM Yes, a treasure of memories. |
| Posted by Laura Doom on 02/01/08 at 12:03 AM Is there a 'final product' or just a continuous work in progress? Anyway, I think you have a tapestry here :) |
| Posted by Michelle Angelini on 06/02/08 at 03:51 PM We're all pieces in a quilt - and even as we go missing, a piece of ourselves will always be part of the mosaic that makes up the quilt. I don't think that any part of matter is ever lost. And, don't we all think the same thing about our lives? The last stanza ties it all together - it's an incredible thought to end the poem with. |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 06/06/16 at 01:19 AM I enjoyed this POTD! Congrats! |
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