Meaning of Teresa Palomo Acosta's "My Mother Pieced Quilts"

Various threads are needed to form one unique quilt. Similarly, a mother quilts together the best and diverse threads of life to form one unique identity in which a child lives with forever. In the poem "My Mother Pieced Quilts" by Teresa Palomo Acosta, the mother chooses the different aspects of the quilt, forms those aspects to make one quilt, and releases that one quilt on which it lives. In the beginning, the mother must …

…parallels to a person's identity living into the future. After the timely process of working, the mother accomplishes the final task of forming a child's identity. The process of choosing, quilting, and releasing signifies the beginning, middle, and future. Both, the mother who shapes the child and the child who lives on, take part in the life process of forming a single identity. After forming that single identity, it lives on to repeat the process.