Texture
…Today on a Zoom presentation, I heard author Drew Gilpin Faust refer to the “texture of life” when discussing her new memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury. Truly, life is textured, layered. That is the stuff of memoir: story, place, and voice woven together.
Textiles
I have always loved textiles, fiber arts. One of my earliest handmade gifts for my mother was a yarn-embroidered gray and brown donkey with pink ears sewn onto burlap. As a child I also loved stories about weaving—like Penelope, who wove by day and surreptitiously unraveled her work by night, foiling her suitors while Odysseus was away; or the Grimms brother’s spinning wheels and Andersen’s loom with invisible thread. As an adult, I have met Navajo weavers in Arizona, Hispanic weavers in New Mexico, and Karen weavers in Thailand.
In the early 1980s on a trip to Washington, D.C., I viewed an exhibit at the Textile Museum. The colors, patterns, and textures from around the world wrapped me in wonder—plant and animal fibers spun for art and utility. The creators’ hands and their creations born of place threaded through my dreams that night.
With visions of textiles from around the globe still in my mind, the next night in D.C. I attended a Christian leadership conference, which opened with music played by blind musician Ken Medema. Accompanying himself on the piano, he sang a spirited verse that reverberated when the auditorium audience joined in for the rousing refrain, WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER AND FINELY WOVEN IN LOVE. I don’t remember much else about the conference, but I have never forgotten the lyrics, the melody, and a sense of deep connection to the fabric of the universe.
Texture, Textile, TEXT
Until today, I had not understood the connection, even though I had taught rhetoric and composition courses and analyzed literary texts. [Unlike my brother, I did not study Latin in high school!] Textiles. Weaving. Writing. Storytelling.
We can credit Wiktionary online for this succinct etymology: text, from Middle English, text; from Old French, texte; from Medieval Latin, textus; from Latin, textus; perfect passive participle of texō (“I weave”). Cognate to English texture.
Isn’t that beautiful?!
Writers are Weavers
My prose poem, Chocolate is Predictable, War Is Obvious, was selected by editor Pete Taylor of Open Shutter Press to appear in the printed FLORA/FAUNA anthology. The poem was inspired by a list of likes and dislikes penned by Susan Sontag. As I share it with you now, I recognize threads of a textured life in what I like (tapestry) and don’t like (Velcro)!
Chocolate is Predictable, War is Obvious
after Susan Sontag
What I like: Dog-eared paperbacks, homemade rice custard, waves crashing, obsidian, knowing names of Premier League footballers, bay windows, wool, handwritten letters, apricots, the word languid, blue gates, afternoon naps in the sun, textiles and tapestry, paths, the sound of migrating geese, adagios.
What I dislike: Canned peas, statements posed as questions, the outfield, family secrets, ice water in winter, mold (except in bleu cheese), parsimony, horror films, artificial turf, nausea, sloppy editing, small talk, Velcro, when I procrastinate, wasps, excuses, tyrants.
I am weaving together a writing life. What does that look like? At the moment, 3 poems have been selected for publication this spring/summer, and 25 individual poems are circulating among 16 different publications awaiting the submission verdict: Accept or Decline?
Meanwhile, you may view these recently published pieces online:
Hold Up Your Head, Point Your Finger Women Raise Our Voices
In this Season, You Already Know Women Raise Our Voices
Your Body Knows Before You Do Feminism and Religion
The memoir is still a work-in-progress, but it’s coming along. The first 200 pages are with my editor…. I anxiously await her comments so I can keep revising!
Until next.
What are your likes, dislikes? Favorite textures? How do you envision the fabric of your life? of the universe? Comments welcome!
Enjoyed your textile text this morning! Though I love to dig into the history of words, I never looked into the text-textile connection. Most interesting! Found the following at https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=text:
"An ancient metaphor: thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner of yarns — but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver. The scribes made this old and audible abstraction into a new and visible fact. After long practice, their work took on such an even, flexible texture that they called the written page a textus, which means cloth. [Robert Bringhurst, 'The Elements of Typographic Style']"
Hi Andi, I especially like your contrasts in "Chocolate is Predictable, War is Obvious." Congratulations on your recent publications and those soon to be published. Mary