Husbands, Divorce, 30 Years on…

@FrancesMForde  #FrancesMacForde  #PoetryPostcards  #Poetry  #Postcards  #Love   #Romance  #Flowers

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My first KINDLE!

KINDLE edition #francesmacaulayforde

 

Well, that’s it – I’ve just published my first KINDLE book on Amazon of a previously printed  “Rail Tales ~ notes from the Currumbine Line”  and naturally, had to buy the first copy.

“Poetry and stories written while travelling on the Currumbine Line between the City of Perth and the Northern Suburbs in Western Australia.”    

It’s live and available right now so I’m pretty pleased.  (It certainly wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be but I managed.)

Here’s another of my favorite short poems from the book:

 

Rail Trail

parallel bars ride the sand

silver bullet steered by hand

expressed in kilometre-d speed

human flotsam to concrete greed

 

 

…and a (very, very) short story I hope you’ll smile at, remembering I was riding the rails when I wrote it.

 

The Great Escape.

Head back, eyes closed. I savor the cool, quiet efficiency of train travel.

I’m alone on this journey.  It is obviously not a popular time to commute.

Silence.  Then a scuffle, a soft knock below me and to the left, makes me

open my eyes. There it is again.  Are there mice on this train?  

It sounds like old crackle-y paper. Rounded, moving haphazardly

in all directions.

I hope the security video can’t see me climb onto the seat. 

Where is it? More importantly – what is it?

Feeling foolish, I gingerly step down. Then cautiously kneel and bend over,

eyes level to the carpet, bum up. 

Oh, it’s O.K. Panic over. Breathe again.

It’s only an onion, enjoying the freedom of riding on the train. 

Do you think it’s got a ticket?

 

 Frances Macaulay Forde © 2003

#BOOKRailTales   #FrancesMacaulayForde

#McAlpineBellPublishing

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Need inspiration?

Andrew Burke hosting Poet’s Corner, May 2008.

I’m shocked!  Andrew Burke has always seemed particularly inspired but wrote on a FB message to me that his writing “has stalled and needs a push start downhill, in gear – like in them good old days” ending with a smiley face.

It shocked and saddened me; I honestly can’t imagine that quick, witty, incisive brain NOT being inspired.  He’s always been such a  prolific poet  dabbling in many genres (even documentary)  inspiring and supporting others with his blog.

But first I got to wondering why…  As John Lennon once said “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”  A totally appropriate quote to use for Andrew because he’s an accomplished  writer, but very much a musician in his soul.

He even has a Wiki page!  (How do you get a Wiki page?)

I also discovered an e-book ‘Blue Rose’ on Smashwords which I have just purchased for a measly $4.99 (!) and because Andrew has inspired me (once again) I’ve joined the site to explore the possibilities for my own words.  (Thanks, Andrew.)

Often as writers needing the head-space to write,  life overwhelms us with what we HAVE to do.

Be selfish sometimes and take a moment to do what you NEED to do, too… we’ll all be better for it.

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Like dust…

Facebook is such a trigger for this blog:  Today a beautiful anthology of ‘Australian Love Poems’ was reviewed and linked by Adrien Abbott Prize page with the quote from Anne Walsh Miller: ‘You’re written in me in the before antiquity language of snowflakes. / Landing everywhere on me so thickly that you’re on me and in me and on my tongue / (you on my tongue is why I talk beautifully like snow under a streetlamp).’  

In the light of recent plagiarism issues with Australian Poetry, the quote reminded me strongly of a poem of my own published in 2005 when I was asked to write a love poem to be read at a good friend’s wedding.  As I had very recently found myself deeply and unexpectedly in love, Barry asked me to express feelings which overwhelmed me, at precisely the right time.

In 2003 I returned from 14 glorious months immersed in poetry and short story where I learnt the ‘I’ was usually taken out of poetry, so this would be a new public direction – I usually kept my ‘love’ poems very private.

The style of writing had to suit the audience – Barry’s mum was deaf and many of her deaf friends would be there with an interpreter to share our words.

Read my poem ‘Like Dust’

Those who ‘watched’ my words, apparently loved the poem although I didn’t find out until later there is no ‘sign’ for ‘dust’, so the interpreter had to improvise… but she managed beautifully.

And I was left wondering, what a shame I couldn’t submit my poem to the anthology  ‘Australian Love Poems’ because it was already in the public domain and those I did submit obviously didn’t appeal because they weren’t included. Not that I’m too disappointed, they let me down easily by saying many excellent poems were not included.

I actually bought two copies, one for me and a gift for a friend but was so pleased with the book in my hand, I’ll be buying more as gifts for Christmas.

Inkerman & Blunt’s next project is an anthology of Love stories.  No doubt it will also grace my bookshelves and be wrapped in Christmas paper.

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Changes

Now that internet is ‘old hat’ I don’t feel the need to have multiple ‘pages’ spread all over the place although they serve me well when people Google my name, I’m slowly reducing the information on my official web pages here:  http://francesmacaulayforde.com to cut down the repetition.

Of course I’ll keep my presence on professional sites where I have full membership such as the Australian Society of Authors, the Australian Writers Guild, Australian Poetry, Australian Literature, SCWBI or crew pages: Screenwest, Film & Television Institute, ABC Tales   IMDB  and others.  There’s even an interview on Fremantle Press.

So in future, I’ll just focus on regularly updating Facebook (for all the goss), LinkedIn (for professional networking), ABC Tales (to post writing regularly) and here, where I’ll keep in touch with my followers in gratitude for their interest.

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Poetry Postcards

So I thought I’d share some poetry postcards I’ve printed up.  I use my own photos or artworks with my poems and give them away when I’m doing talks or workshops.

Recently I was in Residence at Burn Beach Cafe as part of the Cafe Poets Project with Australian Poetry, our national organisation and my postcards were quite popular.

The first three are from my time at Burns Beach on the Sunset Coast of Western Australia and the next couple are others chosen at random… I have published many…

More information here:  http://francesmacaulayforde.com/writing_poetry/postcards

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