Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

Co.Cork.  Frances Macaulay Forde © 2003

The Folly    

Gaeltacht – Irish-speaking area.

Teanga – living language, tongue.

My Gaeltacht friend explained  ‘Ye should go t’ see the folly…’

So, like tourists, my man and I actually took a clear-day,

no rain so far drive. A determined scenic dalliance

in sunny  sections flashing green and historical grey.

Eventually – with no clear direction, journeying

quite far out of our way…  we appreciated the Anglo

interpretation on the road signs, because as foreigners,

we don’t speak the traditional language of Ireland.

Not wanting to barstardise or pronounce phonetically

in error, ‘so’.  We enjoyed the lilt and musicality of her

tumbled, seemingly conscientious explanation – story-

telling at a 100 miles an hour.  ‘Ah well  ye know, ta

get t’da place dat ‘tis, you just go along dis

road, don’t ye know, ‘tis a sort of a wind-y…

There’s all sorts of ways of getting from Tramore to Waterford – it’s just about 8 miles.

I love all the roads for different reasons and each has its own landmarks. Some are very personal to me and others are much more widely recognised.

The farm buildings on the ‘Back Road’ that you see in the photo below really stand out with the white-washed walls and high up green grain doors.

Shadows on the Wall

I make a point of taking the Back Road on sunny days just to see the shadows of the trees playing on the old well kept wall.

It’s always  lovely knowing that Tramore and the sea are waiting not far over the little hill in the distance and that you might  well catch a glimpse of a horse looking out over a stable door in the evocative farm yard.

Yes, fear that I will become addicted.  Fear that I will push myself to read a gazillion books a year so I can frantically, faithfully rate and review them.  Fear that I will get hooked on groups, authors, discussions, surveys and polls—or even worse, a bestseller—and thus lose my individuality.

What if I was swamped by a wave of literary-ness which swept away my identity and I became a book character, never able to reach the shores of reality,  adrift in a choppy sea of font and words, desperately swimming towards the final chapter so I could beach myself on that last blessed page?

It didn’t happen.

I know this because I have finally joined the ranks of Goodreads readers.

Why did I join?  Because I was caught, hook, line and sinker by a single author and her book ‘The Rose and The Thorn’.

In August 2019, I…

Today, Friday, 21st March 2014 has officially been declared ‘World Poetry Day’.

So where does poetry ‘sit’ in your life and what is your idea of poetry?

Poetry is my way of ordering an idea or response, by moving it out of my head in as few words as possible, to clarify ~ writing the spine of what comes next.

It may stay as a poem, or become a short story, a script for a play or the screen or novel, perhaps even spawn more poems… but poetry is always the key.

Poetry is communicating clearly a strong emotion within me, which combined with the use of metaphor, I hope will find an echo when others read my efforts.

So I thought I’d share my reply to a fun poem Professor Glen Phillips sent and my responding poem (with permission, of course):

Glen Phillips reading a poem at Poets…