If the World Were a Quilt

In If the World Were a Quilt, Charles K. Carter walks the line between monk and magician. These meditative poems stop time, pull us from the limbo of memory and hold us from the uncertainty of the future. They turn both mirror and projector to the now inside and around us, in all its gentle and tumultuous beauty, in all its genuine revelation, in all its explosive power as if to shake us awake, to tear down our walls, to say someday 'the sun will swell up / and engulf this whole planet' but until then have the courage to 'be swallowed up by pure sunshine'; until then, open up those eyes-don't blink-and 'be free.'

-Bryan Borland, author of DIG, founding publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press



Charles K. Carter's poetry collection, If the World Were a Quilt, takes readers on a journey that invites us to question the value of our legacy as contrasted with the life cycles of whales in Bahía de Magdalena, twisters across the Midwest, dinosaurs, generational trauma from parents, and heartaches caused by lovers. Readers will enjoy contemplating the existential wonder of Carter's brief but purposeful poems, replicating a similar level of intimacy found in Clifton's and Limón's poems. Carter's one-sitting poems linger beyond the page with the power to unite many who are 'seeking the love in a human's touch.'

-Shareen K. Murayama, author of Housebreak



Charles K. Carter's If the World Were a Quilt is a poignant reflection on the planet's forgiving nature despite humanity's destructive need to build barriers. Through an LGBTQ+ lens, this collection coaxes us to follow 'gentle whalesong' back to the sea, to follow nature's escapist music like sunflowers chasing sunlight. These poems illustrate the deep well of yearning we harbor as LGBTQ+ people, and Carter reminds us that even though we're 'suffocating on craving,' we're connected through our battle scars.

-Donny Winter, author of Carbon Footprint