He's always been and will continue to be a HERO of mine! Thank you, Neil, for all the love expressed so beautifully, discovered in my teenage years but still the background music of my life! Condolences to all who knew and loved him. ❤️❤️❤️
“Love Will Keep Us Together”
Often dismissed as irrelevant once your words and songs built a wall I could safely lean back on, when my heart soared or fell in a hole.
And how many times, over those years my teen angst was expressed better than I could, just exactly as I would - as if I actually did!
How did you know what I felt when marriage ended? Betrayal covered my defeated soul with guilt – blame, why didn’t I see?
You knew what to say to comfort me – to pick me up and show me it wasn’t all my fault – not all… Accept. Step forward holding hands.
My children needed me whole not a heart hurt so bad it couldn’t share the love anymore… fill the holes, make the road straight again.
It took many years but my 1st love found my name on the net living in another country alone believing I’d had my chance...
Somehow deep down, your words worked, unconsciously, even when I rejected the idea of love, you kept telling me, I could try to love again.
I stepped into your time machine Neil – eager to walk, feel the rain. Two of us, no longer playing ‘Solitaire' But loved like your ‘Calendar Girl’.
I think I'm an 'ambivert' because solutions matter but the spotlight is necessary to share my revelations. Take me back to a Culture of Characters, not Personality and I will fit in again, feel like I can take time to myself, create in silence and only, when I'm ready, reveal all.
Never to see or feel or touch again, never to walk through fields or hear the rain… Never to watch the seasons change each year you have gone forever and just left us here.
But we will remember your smile, your eyes, lighting up each moment - we’ll memorise how quiet your gentle support and love showed you were the best, Best Man to have
at not just one but two wedding days, translating, explaining your traditional ways. We all love the laughter and joy you brought with your heart full of curiosity. You sought
to learn, to experience every country you saw, your visits were brief on our Australian shores, but we treasure each moment, left wanting more. Farewell, Dear Pao, you’ve found your peace at last.
2002 - In the early stages of 'Exploring Possibilities', I was nervous...
RENOVATIONS
house loud full of coloured voices frequently gathered while fancy-dressers danced in yellow and purple walled creative spaces where words poured like leaking taps
Bali knick-knacks replaced by exercise machines marching across gym-lounge to a new beat sparse spare look quiet everyman wants resale erasing all memories of trees too many
for the block each shading the other fighting for sunspace whispering familiar songs on the wind-chimed Asian tinkling mellow sunsets through leaves attractive natives dragon flies
hand-long banjo frogs moaning children at night now disturbed environment dusty denuded earth rubble on a bared land eight pots represent an effort to scramble bits hold onto old home
garden spikes coloured leaves rainbows fast disappearing like me palms wave goodbye fronds like giant hands Lillipilli twitters danced on bough Jacaranda carpet my regal path to happiness
cerise Geraniums contained fields of unruly daisies white and purple self-seeding not needing input this house face lifted to halt age contemporised sold out and beige-d like every other me-erased
These are the sort of postcards I would leave on the tables at my PoetsCorner@PagesCafe events. Done on my computer, printed 3-up on A4 card. It’s such an easy way to get poetry to the general public. There were never any left… Of course, when I needed bulk copies I would use Snapfish – only when they had a special on. I also place them into books in libraries and bookshops – with permission. NOTE: Cinquain is the style of poem.
I'm happy for you to share what's published here, so long as Frances Macaulay Forde is credited appropriately.
It would also be a great courtesy if you let me know when and where you've shared my work.
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” Thomas Paine - "Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited." ~ Lord Acton - Commentary on what interests me, reflecting my personal take on the world
Perth Words... exploring possibilities. 