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

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“A gallop through history.”

https://platinumjubilee.com/

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

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