Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

While we’re all separated from each other by COVID-19, perhaps it’s time to send postcards again?  It’s an old-fashioned habit – a short note delivered by the postie, to let others know we are thinking of them.

So, I thought I’d share some poetry postcards I’ve printed using Vistaprint when they have a ‘special’ on postcards.  I used my own photos or artworks with my poems and gave them away when I was 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 chosen at random.   I have published many over the years.

#PoetryPostcards  #FrancesMacaulayForde  #CINQUAIN:Love  #POEM:INeedYou  #POEM:TheBoffin  #POEM:Reserved  #HaikuPoems  #POEM:DoIKnowYou

This poem was written while commuting to University in 2001.  I hope we’ve learned to care for each other more, in these awful COVID-19 times. 

PRIORITY SEATING NO. 2

Young woman sits
   while an old man stands.

She gazes through layers
  of foundation.

Does it screen
  the opposite wall?

Can’t she read the
  “Who are you fooling?”

Fake fur-collared jacket
  and label shoes.

Large black leather bag
  clutched to protect her

- it doesn’t – she’s mean!
The old man has turned

  his neat and clean
  but well-worn back

  and solidly sways,
  not expecting courtesy.

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2001

#POEM:PrioritySeatingNo2  #FrancesMacaulayForde   #COVID-19  #PublicTransport  #Courtesy2020

Dr Angus Macaulay MB CU

Angus Macaulay (1843-1922), Doctors Residence, Keose. Angus graduated from the University of Glasgow and worked in the parish of Kildalton on Islay for 7 years and then in Kirkmichael for 2 years before moving to Lochs. He was the doctor here from 1888 to 1895 and was the first doctor to use the new residence, built in 1889 on the site of the old Parish School. He moved to Stornoway in 1895 before being appointed Medical Officer for the Isle of Barra. He retired to Creagorry, Benbecula.   

Quoted directly from: https://www.hebrideanconnections.com/

With a lot of help researching my family history, I received this copy of a letter written in 1889 by my great-grandfather.  Thank you, Angus Smith, researching people of the Isles.  

#FamilyResearch  #DrAngusMacaulay  #AngusSmith  #MacaulayFamily  #MedicalOfficerOfTheIsleOfBarra

#PoetryPostcards  #POEM:StraightUp  #VoluntaryIsolation  #Lockdown  #FrancesMacaulayForde

On the 5th June 1944 Margaret McAlpine Bell Macaulay married Flight Lieutenant J.A. Forde DFC who was a Master Bomber with the Pathfinder Squadron.  Quite apart from being a mum to four and a wonderful wife to my hero dad, my mum was a hero too.

Unlike Dad’s logbook detailing his flying in WW11, I have no record to refer to Mum’s experiences in the WAAF.  The only time she ever mentioned the war she told me she started smoking while sheltering in an underground station, with hundreds of others, as bombs rained down during the Blitz of London.

My husband and I applied (on her behalf) for and received the medals Mum was entitled.  I wish we’d been able to show our pride when she was alive.

#AnzacDay2020  #CorpMMBMacaulayWAAF  #WW11Heroes