Irish Midsummer

Just shared this post on Instagram:

Whilst rediscovering a lost love in Ireland, I spent 14 months absorbing inspiration, in the cradle of storytelling. I am currently working on putting some impressions into a small chapbook.

Irish Midsummer 

The young hare

on country roads,

blurred speed,

dancing with danger.

Ears flat back along,

legs pumping,

stretched out

in thumping rhythm. 


Teenagers vogue

among foxgloves,

buttercups, daisies…

Identify fatal perfumes

inviting the innocent,

unwary sniffer to twitch

inquisitive noses roadside.


Sudden glare of spotlights

freeze-framed, seconds

star struck - THWACK!

Her body flies up, stops.

Legs loosely flap - fold.

Here lies… with body stilled,

knees crossed like a lady…


Frances Macaulay Forde © 2003

#POEM:IrishMidsummer  #FrancesMacaulayForde #BOOK:SketchingInIreland #IrishPoems
#Nature

In honour of Biodiversity Day:

From the WWF post on Biodiversity Day, I would like to focus on No 1 of Australia’s five Most Valuable Players (MVPs), Ecologically speaking:

Soil

QUOTE: ‘While people might overlook the dirt beneath their feet, the health of soil plays an enormous role in the overall success of the ecosystem. Soil regulates water, cycles minerals and nutrients, and filters out potential pollutants and threats to plants and animals (including humans!). From supporting nesting burrows for wombats, frogs and many more species to hundred-year-old tree roots, healthy soil = healthy habitat!’ :UNQUOTE

This poem was first published (January, 2008) in the ‘Lines in the Sand’ anthology from Fellowship of Australia Writers, WA. I was also invited to read the poem at the launch of John Kinsella‘s book: ‘Shades of the Sublime & the Beautiful‘ on 29^th April 2008, at UWA Bookshop.

desertification

before cultivation the water flowed 
bouncing on leaves, falling, falling 
to pool on fertile forest floor below

before cultivation the water flowed 
flora bursting with life and clean air
jostling for sunspace canopy flirting

before cultivation the water flowed
we didn’t listen as we ploughed 
clearing tree roots to feed fields 

before cultivation the water flowed
now encrusted salt lusts after land
no sweetness here just bitter dry sand

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2007
Reading the poem 

#BiodiversityDay #MVP#1Soil #POEM:Dessertification #FrancesMacaulayForde #ClimateAustralia #ClimateLove

“A gallop through history.”

Home

Like millions, I sat and watched the Windsor Celebrations on TV and felt - like my parents would have been, very proud to celebrate Our Gracious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. 
Such a perfect performances of horsemanship, precision marching and bands, drummers and dancers.  All the pageantry I love: Army/Navy/Air Force bands, bagpipers, galloping horses, Scottish, Irish, Bollywood dancers, orchestral music, steel band and drama.

The only negative (for me) was Tom Cruise?  He certainly managed the most amazing PR for his latest movie.  I am baffled; why was an American actor given first billing over and above higher-achieving British performers? I thought it was a celebration of Our Queen and the Commonwealth?  Did the Queen really choose to include him?


Counting sleep…


I have so many Pinterest boards,

they overwhelm me…

but it’s necessary I check them

every night before sleep.

Gazing at the beautiful photos

calms me, prepares me for rest.

 

It’s a mystery – drives hubby mad

as I consider for hours…

glittering jewels, intricate designs,

glamourous clothes.

Royal fashion icons addictively

inspire imagination.

 

A girly thing, I know, which by now,

I should have outgrown…

Then last night’s epiphany! I don’t actually

want jewels, gorgeous gowns…

travel to exotic places, adoration.

It’s something else entirely.

 

Lingering over pictures of our Queen

examining her dress…

Remembering my mother similarly

draped, often in home made.

I need that royal smile or frown knowing

her royal age, limited time left

 

to vicariously exist… believe I’ve not

lost someone I love and still miss.

 

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2018

#QueenElizabethII #GallupThroughHistory #ProudToBeBritish #ScottishCountryDancers #AcrobatRiders #PrecisionDrummers #Bagpipers #TrinidadSteelBand #BollywoodDancers #IrishDancers #FrancesMacaulayForde #POEM:CountingSleep #LostLovedOnes #Missing Mum

Calling all Australian short story writers!

The world’s richest short story prize open to published and unpublished writers will be presented by The West Australian, with support from Minderoo Foundation. West Australian Newspapers editor-in-chief Anthony De Ceglie, right, is pictured with Minderoo co-founder Nicola Forrest, centre, and Gillian O’Shaughnessy, left, who is curating this year’s Perth Festival Writers Weekend. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian

Best Australian Yarn: The world’s richest short story competition now open

Katherine FlemingThe West Australian

February 26, 2022 2:00AM

WA is now home to the world’s richest prize for amateur short story writers, as The West Australian launches an ambitious new competition with a prize pool of $50,000 thanks to help from the Minderoo Foundation.

The Best Australian Yarn gives writers, both professional and aspiring, the opportunity to win a $30,000 major prize and $20,000 in other awards — a financial incentive rarely seen in short story competitions.

The contest, being launched today at Perth Festival’s Writers Weekend, is designed to showcase the value of storytelling and participating in the arts.

READ FULL ARTICLE in Perth Now

#MinderooFoundation #TheWestAustralian #PerthNow #BestAustralianYarnComp #AttentionAustWriters #ShortStories #$50,000SSComp #CallingAustSSWriters #WritingShortStories #AustShortStories

Book Event with Rachael Johns

Rachael talks about her latest novel “Outback Secrets” facilitated by Better Reading on Facebook. Her interview appears a little down the page on this link:

https://www.facebook.com/BetterReadingAu/videos/566244225083717

I discovered Rachael about 10 years ago when she was selling her novels at Dowerin Field Day. Loved her novels “Man Drought” and “Jilted” because she wrote as she spoke… immediately relatable. I mentioned at the time they would both make good Netflix movies for their Romance channel. That goes for all her novels – she now has more than 20 and 8 digital novellas available on her website. So prolific in 11 years – I am in awe!

Fudge & Rural Romance

#RachaelJohns #RuralRomance #OutbackSecrets #BetterReadingAU #FavouriteWriters #RomanceWriter

Convoy to Canberra

Convoy To Canberra

Thousands gather in Canberra
With signs; “Where is the PM”.
No maskers target policemen,
asking for hugs to spread the bugs.

‘Trump’ flag waves in EPIC park
amongst Aussie and Aboriginal?
US demonstrators, importing 
‘freedom’ to kill by infection!
 
Who is supporting these aliens 
purporting to save our nation? 
What right have they to harass 
those who follow our rules? 

Super-spreaders happy to 
infect mates, reject community, 
stand-up for ignorance. Selfish, 
bored. Terrorists looking for a war. 

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2022

The Wasp

Time to share again…

Perth Words... exploring possibilities.

That’s a HUGE wasp and a HUGE spider!  These are what phobic-I have to put up with in Australia… and I thought growing up in Africa was bad enough!

Contrary to this article saying they’re not, believe me – they ARE dangerous! I have been intimately involved with one…

‘The Paper Wasp’

One typically hot Australian morning, a good ten years ago, I heard the Council rubbish truck as it trundled up our typically suburban hill.

Even though mornings are just not my thing I realized my bin wasn’t standing to attention out the front like all the other smart town-house bins!

Horrors! So even though I was still half asleep, I grabbed a sin-covering gypsy skirt, pulled on a tank top and raced out the back door.

In one swift baton-passing movement, I grabbed the handle of my bin, lowered it to allow for rolling speed and raced headlong…

View original post 439 more words

Happy 2022!

Brolga Dance

In honor of our 18th Wedding Anniversary.

 

Chinese Gardens, Sydney, 2004. FMF © 2003

Brolga Dance

Newly hitched we hit
pop-hot spots in Sydney.
Occasion marked: Us.

Tickets to ‘The Lion King’
in old Capitol Theatre
took us back to Africa.

Sticky date at Doyles
added more weight
to our love waistlines…

We watched the river,
Opera House teeming,
Coat-hanger tourists.

Sky-high Telecom chats
revolving restaurant
views topped off trip

before Aqua chatting,
large-finned silver
swimmers mesmerize.

Guinness for St Paddy
raised to Shamrock Green.
Chinese gardens walk,

Brolga dance to hotel
suite, (less public for
private celebrations).


Frances Macaulay Forde © 2003

#POEM:BrolgaDance   #DelayedHoneymoon  #SydneyTourists  #DoylesRestaurant  #SYDChineseGardens  #SYDCapitolTheatre    #TheLionKing   #SYDOperaHouse  #SYDHarbourBridge

Even the Light — O at the Edges

Even the Light You look out and the sunbeam blinks – a difference in brightness on the drooping seeds. Some days nothing gets done. We live with the unwashed, with stacks of mail, the unfolded, the incomplete. Phrases pop out only to crawl away, and later, reincarnated in other forms, embed themselves just under […]

Even the Light — O at the Edges