Coots

March 25, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Coots

Lakeside, I watch

the Coots bouncing

on top of the water.

They throw their heads

with intention and abandon.

Plunging – immersing themselves.

I want to bounce,

immerse myself.

Plunge into you…

*Coots: small black waterbird related to Moorhens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coot

(1st Pub. ‘Hidden Capacity ~ a poet’s journey’, Ireland, 2003.)

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Dame Vera Lynn – 100 today.

March 20, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Happy 100th Birthday to Dame Vera Lynn: ‘I JUST WANTED TO DO MY BIT.’

Dame Vera Lynn turns 100 and opens up on singing during the Battle of Britain and beating Ed Sheeran to No. 1

Forces’ sweetheart Dame Vera reflects on her time singing for troops and the poignancy of her hit ‘We’ll Meet Again’ as she celebrates landmark birthday.

EXCLUSIVE By Simon Cosyns 20th March 2017, 12:25 am

#WWIISweetheart #BlueBirdsOver #WhiteCliffsOfDover

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Shelf Awareness — Norman Jorgensen

March 20, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Wonderful writer, interesting man. Been a Norm fan for quite a while now…

MAUREEN EPPEN -- WRITER

Children’s author Norman Jorgensen has been writing stories since he was in primary school, and his latest story, The Smuggler’s Curse (Fremantle Press), details the rollicking adventures of young Red Read, whose mother “sells him to an infamous smuggler, plying his trade off the north-west coast of Australia in the closing days of the 19th century”.

Norman’s first picture book, In Flanders Fields (with illustrations by Brian Harrison-Lever), set in World War One, tells of a homesick young soldier who risks his life to rescue a robin caught in the barbed wire of no man’s land. In Flanders Fields won the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year Award in 2003 — the first of many awards for Norman. He has since written a dozen books for children and young people.

Born in Broome, in Western Australia’s tropical north, he now lives in a…

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Begorrathon 2017: My Ireland …

March 20, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Wonderful, stirring stuff!

The Fluff Is Raging

Stephen James Smith

Poet Stephen James Smith was commissioned by the St Patrick’s Festival Festival to write a poem in response to the theme of this year’s festival.

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“Mr Bojangles”

March 16, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

MR BOJANGLES

Like Mr Bo…

my heart jangles

when your smile

misses your eyes.

The face of a clown

soft shoe shuffling

through my soul.

White hands clasped.

The generous frill

framing your mask,

flutters like a wing

across the circus tent

of my broken heart.

Funny shoes walk strong,

confidently skirting around

landmines of feeling

clothed in bright colours.

Poem written to the artwork of Jessica McCallum for her exhibition ‘All The Pretty Ones Are…” State Theatre Centre, Perth, West. Australia. 2011.

#JessicaMcCallum #MrBojangles #Poetry

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Christy Moore, Jack B Yeats – Posts for St Patrick 2

March 15, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Loved this! Thanks.

The Immortal Jukebox

The Home Place.

Never more real and vivid than when recollected in the imagination.

We are our memories.

And, our memories, particularly those which carry the most emotional charge, are constantly being selected, edited and recast.

The stream of memory is never stilled.

The genesis of a song, a poem, a story or a painting begins in an insistent whisper from the memory.

A whisper which cannot be ignored.

Such a whisper was heard in the 1930s by Jack McAuliffe from Lixnaw in County Kerry as he sat sat in a cottage near Dooneen Point.

In response he wrote a poem that became the ballad, ‘The Cliffs of Dooneen’.

The key duty of an creative artist is to closely attend to those whispers and make them real in words on the page, notes in the air or brush marks on the canvas.

And, the truth of the song or the…

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Interview: Jonathan Adams

March 15, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

And now, for something completely different…

Cinema Australia

Jonathan Adams (right) with crew on the set of Rough Stuff.

Director Jonathan Adams joins Cinema Australia to discuss his new film, Rough Stuff.

“I’d like to continue to make films that are transportive and exciting but also thoughtful and have something to say.”

Interview by Matthew Eeles

This is the most fun I’ve had watching an Australian adventure film in years. Was it just as fun to shoot?

Thats a fantastic thing to hear. I suppose shooting a movie is fun in the way that running a marathon is fun, or maybe climbing Mount Everest or something. Its exhausting and it pushes you far beyond your comfort zone. But its also thrilling and enormously gratifying. I look back on the shoot and I kind of smile about the sheer swashbuckling nature of it, even though I know at the time it was really just like climbing a…

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Begorrathon 2017: Maudie

March 11, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Thanks for this, Niall. I’ll be looking out…

The Fluff Is Raging

Some might think it a bit of stretch to include a film on a Canadian topic in the Begorrathon, but Aisling Walsh’s Maudie is an Irish-Canadian co-production, and much of the talent behind the camera is from Ireland.

The film tells the true story of folk artist Maud Lewis, brilliantly played by Sally Hawkins, and her fish peddler husband, Everett (a grunting Ethan Hawke).

Maudie made its Irish premiere last month at the Audi Dublin Film Festival. It will go on general release later this year, and when it does, be sure to see it, and bring tissues.

My Film Ireland review of the film is here.

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‘Nan was my Nigella’

March 10, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Postcard received each year from Coral Carter: www.rubbishphotographer.blogspot.com.au

As a female purveyor of words myself, amongst all the bra-waving, hip-shaking, leg-splays and trousers… I have read many tributes and testaments to International Women’s Day.

It’s a delightful ritual of mine to read as many targeted writings as possible on the day(s), but found my favourite to be not at all as expected.

Written by a (shock, horror) man – and so delightfully fresh; I found “Nan was my Nigella” written by Paul Waring, on my on-line happy place to read new poetry Write Out Loud.

#PaulWaring #IWDPoems #WriteOutLoud #Poetry

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JASPER JONES, BOOKS TO MOVIES: A Q&A WITH CRAIG SILVEY

March 5, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

I’ve been a huge Craig Silvey fan ever since I was introduced, during the 2005 Writer’s festival, to Warren, via ‘Rhubarb’. Must see this film, too!

Write Note Reviews

I was fortunate to be offered the opportunity to interview Craig Silvey this week. We met at Little Lefroy’s in Fremantle, a place I know well, for an informal chat covering the Jasper Jones movie adaptation to writing processes. Craig is a fantastic guy – warm and generous, despite being tired from weeks of film-related commitments – and I really appreciate him giving me this time. Jasper Jones is one of my all-time favourite books, so I admit it was a bit of a fangirl moment, but Craig had no idea … until I asked him to sign my book.

I was also fortunate to attend an advance screening before the interview and in a word, it’s BRILLIANT. This adaptation had all the feels, all the chills, all the lingering thoughts that accompanied the book.
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