Posted in 1968 Notebook, Animals, Poetry, tagged 1968Notebook:Mamba, poetry, Snakes on April 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Another from my teenage notebook:
A snake that wraps
it’s slimy body
around your
good intentions.
It has a bite
that transmits itself
into the other person.
How to ward off
it’s terrible grip?
Best to stand still
heart, bite your lip.
Best not to move
or show when you’re
in it’s grasp,
though your eyes
are green and all
around…
and it’s eating up your heart!
Frances Macaulay Forde @ 1969
@FrancesMForde #FrancesMacForde #1968Notebook:Mamba #Snakes #Poetry
Posted in Animals, Children's stories, COMMUNITY, Illustrators, Love, Music, Poetry, Scripts, Short Stories, Sounds, Writing, tagged Inspiration on April 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Africa, Animals, Music, Video Poems, tagged BBCMotionGallery, FrancesMacaulayForde, NorthernRhodesia, Toto&Africa on January 4, 2015| 1 Comment »
Can’t resist sharing this fabulous combination of beautiful sounds and pictures from the BBC Motion Gallery. It takes me right back to my childhood home of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia:
#Toto&Africa #NorthernRhodesia #Zambia #BBCMotionGallery
Posted in Africa, Animals, COMMUNITY, Music, nature, Poetry, Sound, Writers, Writing, tagged Africa, FrancesMacaulayForde, Freedom, Independence, NorthernRhodesia, poems, TiyendePamodzi, Zambia, Zambia50th on October 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »
“Buy experience, not things.”
Today, Zambia is celebrating 50 years of independence – 24th October 2014 and I can’t help singing to myself – her 1st President Kenneth Kaunda’s signature song: Tiyende Pamodzi : “Let’s go together in harmony.”
I’m still torn between my idyllic childhood in the center of Africa, Northern Rhodesia now Zambia and Perth, Western Australia where I’ve been ever since leaving ‘home’.
Mana Pools, Zambezi River.
They say, once you’ve crossed the mighty Zambezi River you’ll always return. I haven’t yet. I keep in ‘touch’ though, with many friends who have or who also miss ‘home’ and enjoy sharing wonderful memories.
2014 © Heather Chalcraft
Lowdown Magazine is written by Heather Chalcraft who takes amazing photos of Zambia now. This is the Flamboyant or Flame Tree, the sight of which takes me back to Kitwe and Lusaka as quickly as Jacarandas do.
In fact, my man and I reunited on the Great North Road website after 28 years and have been married for 10, so I owe Zambia a great debt for a wonderful childhood, fantastic memories and now, my happiness.
Tiyende Pamodzi…
Your 50 Zambian years means I am 50 years older.
I was at school when you became independent
but your Independence triggered my own at 14.
Not wanting to repeat a year I had just finished,
I refused and found myself a job, instead. My
idyllic childhood safe in Mother Africa’s arms
meant we learnt young to be strong, resilient
finding our own way through the jungle. Confident,
courageous and convinced of our immortality.
I blossomed in your sunshine and freedoms.
As pioneers we knew we could turn our hands
to whatever was required to get the job done.
And we did. During the struggles, shortages
were a given but ever resourceful we shared,
surviving together. The best lesson for life.
Frances Macaulay Forde © 2014
#FrancesMacaulayForde #Zambia50th #POEM:Tiyende Pamodzi #Africa #Zambia #NorthernRhodesia #Poems #Independence #Freedom
Posted in Animals, Ireland, nature, Perth City, Poetry, Sketching In Ireland, Writing, tagged CorkLough, FrancesMacaulayForde, HydePark, PerthDailyPhoto, Swans on September 29, 2014| 3 Comments »
Newness of things:
the greenness – the blueness – the
colours of Spring.
Hyde Park is showing it’s best leafy coat thanks to our recent rains. My sister in law Grace, took some inspiring photos for her blog (above) on Saturday in one of two beautiful parks found within our city environs.
Thanks to Perth planners all those years ago, we can wander down paths next to bubbling water aerated by fountains, reminding me of wandering next to the Lough in Cork City.
Although we have mainly Black Swans here, I enjoyed seeing many white swans and other water birds, there.
Like ballerinas,
swans float above their
watery stage.
Frances Macaulay Forde © 2014
#FrancesMacaulayForde #Swans #CorkLough #HydePark #PerthDailyPhoto
Posted in Animals, Books, Favorite Writers, nature, WA Writers, Writers, Writing, tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, Noreen Reeves, Two Shakes of a Dead Lamb's Tail on September 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »
While peddling our wares at The Pines Markets at Curtin University yesterday, a new marketeer Noreen Reeves was selling her autobiography.
As writers, we chatted and naturally, I bought a copy of “Two Shakes of a Dead Lamb’s Tail” available on Amazon as a Kindle, Hardback or Paperback.
(The book is available from the printer although vastly over-priced! As ‘they’ are NOT on my list of recommendations, I certainly won’t.)
Noreen and I discovered we’re almost neighbors, both living off Ocean Reef Road. We weren’t busy due to the rain and wind so I had time to glance sporadically, up to the third chapter, between serving customers.
So far I’ve read; Noreen is about to have her second baby with a toddler who disappears into the jungle but finds his way safely to his father’s school, Tinputz Vocational Centre. Life certainly isn’t routine for her young family in what seems to be the middle of no-where. Isolated, disorientated and victims of the oppressive heat and prolific wildlife seemingly with no respite and no regular food supply…
“Familiarity began to settle us into a routine. The fly-wire installation was completed, which made life more comfortable. The fockez (flying foxes) could no longer slalom through the windows; however it didn’t deter the geckoes for long. They were beautiful little creatures and it was sometimes a night’s entertainment watching them chase each other around the walls. It was however, anathema not to have a plethora of bugs flying and crawling all around us when the lights were lit. “
The book reminds me of my own Colonial upbringing in Central Africa. Noreen ‘grows up’ in Bougainville Island, pre-independence New Guinea, then shares her life on the farm near Gippsland Lakes in Victoria and a sheep station in outback WA.
It’s Noreen’s 1st book – can’t help but feel this is only the beginning…
#FrancesMacaulayForde #NoreenReeves #TwoShakesOfALDeadLamb’sTail #Autobiography #WAWriters #Author #Writer #AmazonBooks #BougainvilleIsland #NewGuinea #GippslandLakes #VictoriaAU #SheepStation #OutbackWA
Posted in Animals, Books, Ireland, Poetry, Writers, Writing, tagged DogsSinging, Frances Macaulay Forde, JessieLendennie, SalmonBookshop, SalmonPoetry on September 6, 2014| 1 Comment »
My friend Jessie Lendennie, poet and Salmon Poetry publisher extraordinaire loves dogs so much, she called on poetic friends to send their poems about dogs for a tribute anthology; “Dogs Singing”.
The result is a book I keep on my desk to savor, to delve into, every now an then.
I still miss my own faithful Butchy – often feel him pacing outside the back door and fancy I catch a glimpse of him checking the garden, as I hang the washing.
This poem by Desmond Gough is simply called “Zach” appears on page 61 of 417 pages.
You can order your own copy on-line or pop into the Salmon Bookshop & Literary Centre in Ennistymon, Co. Clare.
#FrancesMacaulayForde #JessieLendennie #SalmonPoetry #SalmonBookshop #DogsSinging
Posted in Africa, Animals, Art, Books, nature, Poetry, Writers, Writing, tagged Africa, Artist: Jessica McCallum, Elephants, Exhib: All the Pretty Ones Are, Frances Macaulay Forde, Global March for Elephants and Rhinos, Harry Owen, Jessica McCallum, poems, Rhinos, Satao of Tsavo, writing on June 15, 2014| 7 Comments »
My daughter’s studio. #JessicaMcCallum © 2011
My daughter Jessica McCallum’s 3rd exhibition ‘All the Pretty Ones Are’ (all things Circus) was held in 2011 at the Heath Ledger Theatre foyer in the new and exciting State Theatre Centre.
I feel the poetry I wrote to the artworks of that exhibition, was some of my best; particularly this one written from a childhood memory of the circus coming to our small town in Africa. Although he was an Indian elephant – African elephants can’t be tamed and I love them more, for that.
The Global March for Elephants and Rhinos is a call for a world-wide response to the continued senseless cruelty – the terrible things happening to these beautiful, wise, gentle creatures.
Just weeks ago what’s said to be the largest bull elephant in Africa; Satao of Tsavo in Kenya had his face hacked off for his magnificent tusks!
All this information is thanks to Harry Owen on Facebook: I’ve mentioned before, his book to raise funds for the cause of saving Rhino’s and can’t wait for my copy…
Meanwhile I thought I’d share another of my poems from that exhibition.
Artwork 2 of 4 from the ‘Play’ series, sketch in progress. #JessicaMcCallum © 2011
When I was a child
I remember thinking
that chain around
the elephant’s leg
wasn’t strong enough.
Elephants are tough!
If he wanted, he
could free himself just
by lifting that mighty foot
shaking the metal loose
and walking away…
Why does he stay?
No-one could stop him
If he chose to go, take
his own path. No more
performance on command
– he could find some green.
Walk through jungles again!
Elephants are tough so
why does he stay, stroll
through sawdust, put up
with that lady who leans
into his ear, whispering…
It’s because he loves her.
#FrancesMacaulayForde #JessicaMcCallumArtist #AllThePrettyOnesAreExhib #HarryOwen #GlobalMarchForElephantsAndRhinos #SataoOfTsavo
Posted in Animals, Books, Children's stories, Plays, Theatre, Writers, Writing, tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, Hazel Edwards, Joondalup Library, Mem Fox, WritingWA on June 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
To quote WritingWA from Facebook yesterday:
“Hooray! There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Having a Birthday Party” by Hazel Edwards.
Classroom playscripts encourage literacy especially if linked to a fun picture book. ‘Hooray! There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Having a Birthday Party’ paperback out soon (from Hazel Edwards) but classroom performance script based on hardback available for free download. http://www.hazeledwards.com/files//classroom_playscripts_from_picture_books/pb_hazel_edwards_classroom_playscript__birthday_hippo.pdf
“Wilfred Gordon McDonal Partridge” by Mem Fox
I know this. I was commission in 1998 to adapt a well known book by Mem Fox to a playscript, so children visiting Joondalup Library could act out and enjoy the story more. The characters in “WILFRED GORDON MCDONALD PARTRIDGE” provided lots of opportunities for young minds to express themselves and enjoy putting themselves into the story. And they did – with gusto!
So I know, the play script so generously provided here by Hazel, will be a huge hit – just as her book will be.
#francesmacaulayforde #WritingWA #HazelEdwards #MemFox #JoondalupLibrary
Posted in Africa, Animals, Books, nature, Poetry, Writing, tagged animals, extinction, Frances Macaulay Forde, Harry Owen, nature, poems, Rhinos, South Africa on April 27, 2014| 3 Comments »
Busy doing my tax return and came across an unsaved (!) poem I wrote and submitted (some time ago) to be included in an anthology to raise funds for the preservation of Rhinos.
Harry Owen the inaugural Poet Laureate for Cheshire (UK) in 2003, moved to South Africa’s Eastern Cape in January 2008, was the editor and now the book is published I shall put my order in.
Even though they didn’t use my poem I certainly want to support their very worthy cause.
Thandi
Imagine slow, deep heart beats
echoing inside a massive hide.
Slumberous half-blind grazing.
Open veld rare rhino protected.
Unaware evil stalks with intent.
Crack! Stinging rifle shot thrums.
Laboring body lumbers to escape.
Laid low, as deadly saw crudely
works on pointed bone bleeding
on Africa’s Skin. Enough death,
illegal trade. This is no noble
harvest to feed the starving poor…
Frances Macaulay Forde © 2012
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