Looking through my archives on Vimeo, I’ve found a little video I put together with firstly photos from the 2009 and vision (with sound) of the parade in the 2010 Moondyne Festivals held in Toodyay.
On the way home I wrote a poem inspired by the evidence of recent bushfires in the landscape which was later published by the International Centre for Landscape and Language Journal, Edith Cowan University.
Toodyay.
black ash still lay
where fire had licked
with devil tongues
across the road-side gravel
a careless cigarette
city slicker thrown
on community fun day
to re-enact Moondyne Joe
quick fire prowled up
summer-dry gullies
stand of trees ridge
wind break – not fire-breaker
no escape allowed
as bright yellow jackets
smother white foam
contain the bush fire danger
gumtree pale striped
old bark peeled back
green growth beauty
black trees juxtaposed
fresh life canopies
halt dieback spores
spiked hair sprouts
thousand years and counting
Frances Macaulay Forde © 2010
#POEM:Toodyay #MoondyneJoe #MoondyneFestivals #ToodyayWA #poetry #FrancesMacaulayForde
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