December | 2014 | Perth Words... exploring possibilities.

Proud to live in Northern Rhodesia (1954 to 1976) now Zambia, I spent many happy times in what was then our nearest glamorous destination, the thriving metropolis of Salisbury. It was a great place for shopping, nightlife and bands and I spent many long weekends there but doubt I would recognize it now as Harare, Zimbabwe.

Like most travelers on their way further south to Durban or Jo’Berg by road or train, I would stop at Bulawayo, also known as the ‘City of Kings’ by its Zulu founders.

Regular e-newsletters from Eddie Cross are posted on his website and find their way around the world, out of Bulawayo (at great personal risk). My heart breaks for the people of Zimbabwe.

This poem was inspired by one such newsletter in 2007 and was first published on the Sokwanele website: ‘This is Zimbabwe’ .

Roots & Wings

When someone asks for a memory
of Africa, I always remember
those dusty hours spent outside
Katie’s Khaya under the Mopani…

Quiet melodious chattering,
the smell of sunshine and family.
Bright white sudza plops in the pot
while bundu sticks crackled with fire.

Low stools where we crouched
in total concentration on a square
of a dozen small indents for stones,
scratched out of Africa’s skin.

Today Eddie talks of ‘roots and wings’,
of flights of fear or stoic stance:
the holes left by those who uproot
and the bravery of those who stay…

I visualize a map of Zimbabwe
systematically marked with holes.
Is this just another game of ‘Stones’
where only one man gets a turn?

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2007

#FrancesMacaulayForde #EddieCross #Bulawayo #ThisIsZimbabwe #POEM:Roots&Wings #Sokwanele

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Apricot House (after Wang Wei)

Posted in Writing on December 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I find the translation of poetry fascinating.

O at the Edges

Apricot House (after Wang Wei)

We cut the finest apricot for roof beams
and braided fragrant grasses over them.

I wonder if clouds might form there
and rain upon this world?

The transliteration on Chinese-poems.com reads:

Fine apricot cut for roofbeam
Fragrant cogongrass tie for eaves
Not know ridgepole in cloud
Go make people among rain

Each adaptation poses its challenges, and this one was certainly no exception.

First I identified key words and determined how or whether to use them.

Apricot, roofbeam, cogongrass, eaves, ridgepole, cloud, people, rain.

Apricot was a given. It offered specificity, and feels lovely in the mouth. Roof beams, as well. Cogongrass didn’t make the cut. It is indeed used for thatched roofs in southeast Asia, but it felt clumsy; in this case, the specificity it lent detracted from my reading. And rather than use “thatched” I chose “braided” to imply the layered effect of thatching…

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The next wave (part 4): WA women writers to look out for

Posted in Writing on December 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In case you missed it, readers.

looking up/looking down

The next wave is a four-part series featuring exciting Western Australian women writers with manuscripts ready for submission or nearly there. I hope you’ll remember their names and watch out for their published work.

My final two guests are Michelle Michau-Crawford and Louise Allan.

Michelle Michau-Crawford

Michelle and I share a love of short stories—and Paris. Michelle recently spent a month there, collects French literature and is currently attempting to learn French so she can read her collection. ‘Despite it being the so-called City of Love,’ she says, ‘it is my favourite place to visit alone.’ Her love affair with the city began by accident on a trip in 2008. Having been a huge Leonard Cohen fan all her life, she discovered he was performing in Lyon two weeks after a conference she was attending in Dublin. ‘I extended my trip, bought a scalped ticket and went to Lyon…

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