Happy Holidays! I am thankful for much today, including that the two young women in my household are recovering fast from COVID. I have been thinking about the bonds between women and children. I hope you enjoy this sketch from my recent visit to the exhibition. For those of you in the Bay Area, see my website for invitation to a reading at Bird and Beckett Bookstore December 4th at 7:00PM We are celebrating my writing group’s new book: Season Lightly With Salt, available at Raven and Wren Press. Stay Well!
Dry-Point
Slender, simple lines scratched
on a metal plate with an etching needle.
It seems a harsh, hard process.
Yet the artist rendered the tender backside
of a young child readying for a bath
in lines and shadow so skillfully
the weight of soft buttocks rests in my arm,
a little hand on my shoulder.
A haze of pastel, blond, and sable curls,
and attentive gazes fill the museum walls
of the Mary Cassatt exhibition.
They scan as short stories of relationships
between Madonnas and babies,
women and children.
The group portraits hint at novels.
The powerful etchings are haikus.
Heather Saunders Estes 