Ekphrastic Mama

Ekphrastic Mama

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I am the mother of three daughters, each born in a different decade, and three sons in a somewhat closer clump. One "hub" hold us together. This is not what passes for wise family planning in American culture, but as the beat poet Alice Notley wrote, “I didn’t plan my pregnancies. I’m an experimentalist.” When I was writing Ekphrastic Mama for Mothers Creating/Writing Lives: Motherhood Memoir, I took stock of our family span: with one child married, one in college, one in high school, one in junior high, an elementary schooler, a toddler, and now a grandbaby, I was experiencing all phases of motherhood simultaneously. Years later I'm still experimenting with ekphrasis- art that speaks out- and hoping to inspire others in their writing ventures.
walking up the stairs at Parc Belleville, Paris

Mamomemo moves to France… in 2025?

Adventure

In 2024 our middle daughter, Lily Rose, got married. Soon after, we went to France. Then right before Christmas we went back to France, and a month later, I’m still here. What am I doing here in France? A question of purpose… Just this week I remembered a post-it note I wrote and put next to the refrigerator a year or so ago. “By 2029 we will live in or near Paris for 1-3 months.” Wish fulfillment? I’ve built a few friendships with French women over the past few years and one of them offered me her apartment in Paris since she lives with her boyfriend, so the opportunity presented itself (more later on building community in France) I’ve been in France for a month and probably won’t return home to Camas, WA for another three weeks because, pourquois pas? Why not? as the French are fond of throwing in…

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John dancing with Lily at her wedding

I Hope You Dance

Adventure

When it was our turn to dance as parents I could hardly remember how to move my feet, but then John reminded me of the steps. He whispered quick, quick, slow, slow… I was a little numb at the time, but his words, simple as they were, made it to my feet, coaxing them into a rhythm.

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The Ekphrastic Letter

Epiphanies

Dear Mother,
I should’ve cleaned your fingernails before you died. I know dirty fingernails never bothered you, but in that last photo I took of you where your hands wrap around the ceramic mug of fresh coffee I brought with real cream, instead of the styrofoam cup of instant with powder packets you’d been getting—-in that picture the gleam is back in your eyes, feisty again, but a dark, dirty rim lines each fingernail. I regret not offering to clean your nails, but at the time it didn’t occur to me. You had lots of life left in you. You could’ve cleaned your own fingernails….

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May is a Mother of a Month

Prompts

17 years ago today, at age 47 1/2, I gave birth to my third daughter, our six child.Somewhere along the line we realized May 1 is my 1/2 birthday (and Nov. 1, is Arielle’s 1/2 birthday). This is a child who loves to celebrate, and a child we love celebrating. at the wedding reception for Marie & Jerome in Burgundy France, 2023 Today, after birthday dinner and opening gifts, including 9 sketchbooks because she loves to draw and ran out of sketchbooks last week, she reviewed her life in pictures on my phone. She commented on our many trips together- Iceland, England, Germany last year, France several times… so many good times together, but all too soon it will be time for her to leave home. 17 begins a countdown to adulthood, graduation and college, and/or possibly marriage. Her sister, our middle daughter, is getting married at the end of…

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cut-out 1950s head of a woman

Paper Doll Mom

Prompts

This is an excerpt of a flash memoir piece I recently wrote. What artifacts do you have that might spur on your writing? It’s a fun way to play with items you’ve been left with while reminiscing through the past, bringing life to your present work.

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