Writing Group This Month
This month we met at Mary Jane Dickerson’s house in Jericho…. from left to right: Hub, Mary Jane, Glenda, Rosalind, Carl and Toby. MJ had some poems and Hub talked about final drafts of his book. Mary Jane read a draft of a poem she is working on about her mother and gave permission for me to include it below. The meal was gourmet as usual. If I’m going to keep up with this group, I’m going to have to begin to write again. That is the main focus/purpose of these meetings. Bringing paintings doesn’t really work as well as my painting critique sessions in other venues. Rebecca did not attend as she was taking a Mac course at Small Dog - the Mac store. Laura couldn’t come this time either.
My Mother’s Body by Mary Jane Dickerson, (a beginning draft)
My Mother’s Body
At ninety-five possesses a beauty
wondrous to behold
as she steps into her bath while I
hold her hand, one arm encircling her waist
to steady her as she eases herself
with care into the water
Her shoulders always held erect, breasts
sloping away and down into a waist that’s
never lost its inward curve, flesh
like white satin to the touch,
she still moves
with a deliberate grace that sends me into reverie,
imagining Bathsheba with maidens at water’s edge,
Susanna bathing in her garden - figures of females
vulnerable in that intimate moment
of immersing themselves into
the transparency of water.
This poem made me think of a series of paintings that Bonnard made of his wife in the bath (click here and here). It also brought to mind an essay -Still Life - by Mary Gordon that was published in Harper’s some time ago, (click here) in which she reflects - using the paintings of Bonnard, upon her mother at age 90.