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Recently Doris Lessing died at the ripe old age of 94 with more than 50 books to her name and 3 children, 2 of whom she abandoned to achieve her career dreams. So I find it interesting that she was later known for her humanitarian efforts – is it just me or is there something wrong with that picture?

Oh – she also won a Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of 88 (oldest recipient) for her life’s work.

“The Grass Is Singing” was her first publication in the 1950’s, at the time a shocking story of life in Southern Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe. That country banned her for 25 years but recently welcomed her with open arms.

I remember reading the story in the 60’s when I lived over the border, in Northern Rhodesia and being impressed with the characterizations and ‘reality’ she managed to capture and share.

And now I find out she was a poet, as well!

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Apologies…

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, new writing, Poem, poetry postcards, Poets Corner, screenwriting, website, words, writer on January 13, 2014| 1 Comment »

I’m going to be off-line for a while as my computer needs some hospital treatment after I joined DropBox then decided to delete my account. Before cancelling the account I deleted all the files for safety.

What I didn’t know was DropBox deleted everything on ‘all my devices’ – my hard drive too! BUGGER!

I’m just really hoping my computer guru/fixer can find them and restore everything again. I’ve got most files & photos backed up but not since November – so all Chrissy photos and writing… Oh well. Hopefully I’ll be back in a couple of days.

Thanks so much for reading my humble blog and have a good week. Remember to back up often!

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Raincheck

Posted in Art, Art as the Spark, Poetry, Writing, tagged Art as the Spark, Frances Macaulay Forde, Jessica McCallum, Poem, poetry in Western Australia, poetry postcards, Raincheck Exhibition, Raindrops, words, writer on December 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

Umbrella Series (detail) by Jessica McCallum
‘Raincheck’ Exhibition 2010

Like tears

Rain hits my umbrella

Bouncing bursting

Droplets scattering

Spreading my pain

Shimmering images

Relections of you

–

Love like rain

Showers me

With tears

–

_______________________________________________

‘Raincheck’ an exhibition in case of showers… 2010

Artworks by Mixed Media Artist, Jessica McCallum

Held Aug 23 – Sept 10, Subiaco Arts Centre Gallery, Perth, WA.

(Poetry postcards from exhibitions available from WEBSITE)

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“All The Pretty Ones Are…”

Posted in Art, Art as the Spark, Poetry, Writing, tagged 'All the Pretty Ones Are...", Art as the Spark, Artist, Frances Macaulay Forde, Jessica McCallum, poetry, poetry in Western Australia, Roll Up! Roll Up!, words, writer on December 18, 2013| 3 Comments »

Roll up! Roll up! Crack

the whip! Circle the horses.

Let the monkeys laugh

–

and play with careless

disarray around this heart;

broken, wounded, fallen

–

from the high wire,

grip gone, hands open

in mute surrender.

–

Your forced false smile

Painted in a permanent

Good-vibe leer… I tip

–

my hat to all who stride

into the ring, willingly –

take a chance on love.

–

All the pretty ones

are gathered for love’s

circus performance.

–

Watch out for the Ringmaster!

He can reach a hand inside

your chest and squeeze…

–

Written for “All The Pretty Ones Are…”

Studio Underground Foyer

State Theatre Centre of WA

(Friday 11 to Sunday 20 November 2011)

Funny folk, fear & fascination… complete with feathers…

All The Pretty One’s Are, is an exhibition of mixed media paintings by local Perth artist Jessica McCallum and will be on show for one week only in the Studio Underground Foyer at The State Theatre Centre of WA. Jessica’s style incorporates traditional watercolours & inks with a dark twist, and large-scale pop art, mixed media pieces. Her influences are murals, street art & old-skool comic book culture. Ever wanted to run away to the Circus?

For further information please visit http://jessicamccallum.blogspot.com/

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Valentine’s Day

Posted in Scripts, Writing, tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, screenwriting, scripts, Valentine's Day, words, writer, writing on December 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

OK time to lighten the mood.

As a screenwriter, I have so many scripts just sitting around… shorts, features, TV Series etc.

One day, I’ll find the time to film this short-short with a couple of friends and my stills camera which takes video.

It’s so easy these days with all the options on the net to just film something and upload it onto You Tube.

You never know what will be a hit, what will just strike the collective funny bone and go viral.

But until I do, I thought I’d share this 3 min script with you. ‘Valentine’s Day‘

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Like dust…

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged Adrien Abbott, Australian Love poems, Australian Poetry, Frances Macaulay Forde, inkerman & blunt, LIke Dust, Love, love poem, poems, poetry in Western Australia, words, writer on November 8, 2013| 3 Comments »

Facebook is such a trigger for this blog: Today a beautiful anthology of ‘Australian Love Poems’ was reviewed and linked by Adrien Abbott Prize page with the quote from Anne Walsh Miller: ‘You’re written in me in the before antiquity language of snowflakes. / Landing everywhere on me so thickly that you’re on me and in me and on my tongue / (you on my tongue is why I talk beautifully like snow under a streetlamp).’

In the light of recent plagiarism issues with Australian Poetry, the quote reminded me strongly of a poem of my own published in 2005 when I was asked to write a love poem to be read at a good friend’s wedding. As I had very recently found myself deeply and unexpectedly in love, Barry asked me to express feelings which overwhelmed me, at precisely the right time.

In 2003 I returned from 14 glorious months immersed in poetry and short story where I learnt the ‘I’ was usually taken out of poetry, so this would be a new public direction – I usually kept my ‘love’ poems very private.

The style of writing had to suit the audience – Barry’s mum was deaf and many of her deaf friends would be there with an interpreter to share our words.

Read my poem ‘Like Dust’

Those who ‘watched’ my words, apparently loved the poem although I didn’t find out until later there is no ‘sign’ for ‘dust’, so the interpreter had to improvise… but she managed beautifully.

And I was left wondering, what a shame I couldn’t submit my poem to the anthology ‘Australian Love Poems’ because it was already in the public domain and those I did submit obviously didn’t appeal because they weren’t included. Not that I’m too disappointed, they let me down easily by saying many excellent poems were not included.

I actually bought two copies, one for me and a gift for a friend but was so pleased with the book in my hand, I’ll be buying more as gifts for Christmas.

Inkerman & Blunt’s next project is an anthology of Love stories. No doubt it will also grace my bookshelves and be wrapped in Christmas paper.

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Nessie sighting…

Posted in Poetry, tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, Nessie, new writing, Perth Daily Photo, poetry postcards, popular travel blog, words, writer on October 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Today’s news stories about a ‘Nessie’ sighting this side of the globe has reminded me of something I wrote a while ago for my sister-in-law’s very popular travel blog about Perth; http://perthdailyphoto.blogspot.com.au

Every day she uploads photos she’s taken in and around Perth, Western Australia (she particularly loves our pretty city) discovering new and interesting places all the time.

On May 30th last year, she’d taken a fabulous photo at Mullalloo beach and wanted me to write something to go with the photo. Naturally, I was happy to oblige and sent a short poem back within half an hour. She was totally amazed with what I ‘saw’ in the frame…

The Surgeon’s Photo

Like a summer’s day Nessie in her deepest loch

with itinerant Hugh Gray’s camera watching on shore,

she bows her head to honour the sparkling blue

and dances in the sunlight between the stars.

She is a he whose strong arms plunge out to sea

powering over and above possible danger beneath,

relentlessly pulling liquid waves to his chest –

a celebration of strength, youth and fearlessness.

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Changes

Posted in Writing, tagged ABC Tales, Australian Literature (AusLit), Australian Poetry, Australian Society of Authors, australian writers guild, Burn Beach Cafe, Facebook, Film & Television Institute, Frances Macaulay Forde, LinkedIn, poems, poetry, poetry in Western Australia, Poets Cafe, Poets Corner, Screenwest, website, words, writer on October 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Now that internet is ‘old hat’ I don’t feel the need to have multiple ‘pages’ spread all over the place although they serve me well when people Google my name, I’m slowly reducing the information on my official web pages here: http://francesmacaulayforde.com to cut down the repetition.

Of course I’ll keep my presence on professional sites where I have full membership such as the Australian Society of Authors, the Australian Writers Guild, Australian Poetry, Australian Literature, SCWBI or crew pages: Screenwest, Film & Television Institute, ABC Tales IMDB and others. There’s even an interview on Fremantle Press.

So in future, I’ll just focus on regularly updating Facebook (for all the goss), LinkedIn (for professional networking), ABC Tales (to post writing regularly) and here, where I’ll keep in touch with my followers in gratitude for their interest.

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Poetry Postcards

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Postcards, tagged Australian Poetry, Burn Beach Cafe, Frances Macaulay Forde, new writing, poems, poetry in Western Australia, poetry postcards, words, writer on October 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

So I thought I’d share some poetry postcards I’ve printed up. I use my own photos or artworks with my poems and give them away when I’m 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 others chosen at random… I have published many…

More information here: http://francesmacaulayforde.com/writing_poetry/postcards