ARTWORK:  Acrylic on wood by FMF © 2003.

Looking back through my poetry written in 2000: 'The Return of Rainbows’ was conceived at University as a mature-age student bloodied by life’s battles and as always, finding succor in words. My seemingly audacious presence provided lots of fodder to explore the constant challenges and effects of that experience on my life.

The Return
of Rainbows

...

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king of hearts & queen of diamonds

 

power moves a few steps ahead 

 

A king take you and make you a queen

 

checkerboard floors

 

masonic mosaic pavement 

 

white columns

 

the oval office 

 

A piece of printer paper covered in black ink

 

blotter sheets

 

this office chairs circular turn is for looking around your cubicle at these four walls

...

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Refugee

 

Like a butterfly

I am caught

between the fly-screen

and glass door

 

through a veil of tears

I see freedom

but cling to the bars

and want more…

 

 

Frances Macaulay Forde © 2005

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Another one from my 'Sketching in Ireland' while Exploring Possibilities manuscript.

 

Vacuuming

 

With every pull toward your body

you expect obedience.

Expect each tiny micron of dirt

to be sucked up and away –

captured.  Tied

neatly in a disposable bag

then tossed out with the rubbish.

 

Controlled.  Dealt with, put out.

Never mind – away – forget.

 

...

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i love the rain

i love the pouring sound of tears from the skies

i love the sound of thunder shouting

“here you go”

i love the cold wind that clears the air

 

but there is a vendor down the street

who cannot sell today

there are homeless souls

sleeping outside under the rain tonight

there are homes collapsing

in the towering hills

the vegetables the old lady

...

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You Glow

 

You glow

with love for me.

Accepting all I give,

never questioning if I love.

I don’t.

 

TEARS FALL

 

Tears fall

like rivers of

pain. Rejection will hurt.

Just touch him and say goodbye to

your heart.

 

Streetlight

 

It glows.

The safe ribbon

of light, meandering

on toward home. But my path was

unlit.

 

...

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This one's from my 1968 Notebook - actually written in 1970. I was 20 and into Astrology. Did you know? Did you know that Cancer was compatible with Virgo? No? Well, it is. So now, you should take notice of me. You’re so tall you have to bend to come through the door. I’m so small I have to jump to reach the top shelf. Funny, hey, that I should fancy you ...

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An old one - from Uni days (1999), before my Irish lover sent flowers and changed my life, forever.

DOORS CLOSING

How often has the door closed on opportunity for me?
And how many times have I shut it?

‘Well, open it again.’ You say. Not so easy
when it is wedged with prejudice.

Locked with lies about your femininity
and jammed with judicial errors.

I am an opportunist and I do b...

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You ask me why i left dancing-

surely i loved it,then why?

but when i say i left it,

why cant you simply accept that?

 

How do i tell you that now,

every time i raise my hand to sway

it no longer move in a free,careless rythm,

but trembles instead,

like something asking,

like something begging.

 

Every time i enter that space

it no longer brings me creat...

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And when the depression takes its toll

I look at the star just above my head,

tears rolling down my cheeks  , 

With hope in this heavy heart , 

wishing you are looking out for me ,

Telling me in your loving voice 

that it's gonna be over soon

I can stop fighting ,

lay down my weapons 

Demons going to the far land 

I sleep peacefully laying head in your lap 

Telling...

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Footsteps tread a deadly underworld,

My name is Melissa; dark syllabic wine my

            addiction of choice

 

Lyrical ecstasy exploding emotions

 

On a wet dark night the pyjama poets

            circle and talk of death to all men

You can never be truly free, unless

            trapped in a lift

 

Last time I went to Middlewood way, we got stuck

            ...

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Plight of the Iguanas

These reptiles that thrive in the heat
Fall frigid and plop at our feet.
From branches they’re dropping,
And from rooftops they’re flopping,
But at least we’ll have something to eat!

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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 er...

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As the first one fell,

They all shouted: ‘Missed!’

 

As the second one fell,

They all shouted: ‘Missed!’

 

As the third one fell –

 

Enraged, he drove to the outskirts,

Eager to conjure up the words

For death throes of expired luck,

To paint the smell of burning flesh.

 

But no words arrived. Nothing came.

Remains were pulled from the remains.

 

Late...

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Carpe Momentum

 

Momentous

 

superfluous opposing movements

just as fluids do past each other

 

improvements

attunement to the light’s

insight

A futurist's vision

similarities to a T-800 series terminator

 

salvaging used computer components for gold

and, having them meltdown

 

it’s final words were 99% of the population will keel over from sheer bor...

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— Entities

God’s enemies …

reckoning on pity

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I miss when looking at a photo of you
felt like butterflies,
not a blade in my stomach.

No one had ever expanded their image of me
beyond a body
until you did.

Now your memory is stitched
into my favourite beach,
my favourite walk.

I fell foolishly,
clinging to your aloof endearments,
mistaking distance for depth.

You said you would meet me in the rain,
but you couldn’t even m...

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“The British and the Americans

are two peoples

united by a common language:

that of love!”

Yours Truly, 16/1/26

[apologies to GB Shaw]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love, on the front line,

Murdered: there for her neighbor.

Poet in motion.

 

 

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh,

ag a dó dhéag a chlog,

Dé hAoine, an séú ...

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Eyes open to see but for what?

Four blank walls and weighted lids and

The same old places as when we were kids

Only the weather changes their faces

From grey to green and the footpath traces

The same familiar routes

The mud that covers my boots

Is dry but not scrubbed away

They’ll just get dirty again anyway

It is no sight at all.

 

Hands reach out to touch but for...

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I’d hate to sit with the poets

their laughter arrives

a second before the silence

 

something in them stays seated

unmoved

while the rest pretends to live

 

they carry whole winters

under light conversation

hands steady

eyes elsewhere

 

pain is taught patience

it waits

 

I’d hate to sit with the poets

because the page knows

what the room is spa...

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The merchant rises before the dawn

And sees the darkness fading

For another day of trading

An existence so degrading

In its repetitious gloom

And soon it will be time to start

The grinding shift, its end so far

Away from where the two arms stand

Into the strand and down the hall

Up the escalator to the end of the mall

And the sliding doors, they open wide

The hungr...

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The seams split from the land to the sea

And dreams of still waters die

The lie of open arms disintegrates

In the slither of the lullaby 

Of reasons and rhymes set to rock us to sleep

But sheep are aimless in a boundless heath

And see no route so dreaded fate ensues 

As the ocean follows the moon

And soon we’ll all be keeping score

Strike one and two, strike three and fo...

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got a lot of heart

A martial artist pained

paints the canvas
a dark red
black & blue
due to lack of oxygen

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I want to Marry you, maritime vibes, in the Bay Area like during low tide yeah, I want to really seize the moment and feel the energies of the sea’s breeze, therapeutic

they’d love it too if you threw your bridal shoes into our crowd then we can walk around the beach with the sand beneath our feet

 

dispel any negative energy, lift and thin the veil

to breakthrough the threshold

can...

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Boiling,
steaming,
rolling like an oiled marble,
water can burn
my skin and my temper.

Frozen,
cubed,
solid as a saint’s promise,
water can chill
my drink and my disposition.

Purified,
softened,
running like a strong campaign,
water can cleanse
my hands and my spirit.

Flooding,
filthy,
pressured like an apprentice,
water can wreck
my possessions and my life.

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envisage the vision
believe in the dream

support the
purported
person you love
and care for

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ad libitum

I love to listen
to the rhythm
of a heart’s beat break
mixtape rapping
without skipping a beat

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some incorporeal humans in form
ate what they say
was a plant based diet
and thus were subject
to divergent evolution

amorphous... because
the species had once chosen
not to consume animal proteins
frowning down upon us from the heavens
as if we were subhuman

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I'm thinking with my dickhead

and

speaking with these pussy lips

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heroic dosages, taken
on a trip made up out of fear

nightmare fuel

Terra’s mental plane

astral travel…
plan it…

and don’t even begin to panic, or else...
they may think you need help

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A method actor
was asked for their perspective

which is more difficult
to impersonate, and
get inside the mind
of a deluded lunatic

or out of character

and, it was answered
with laughter

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training everyday
gave me this blood lust

had a fever dream
and, awoke in cold sweats

we have a safe word
that turns me off

like I’m a sleeper agent

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ancestors were what we worshipped
the old gods
ancient technology with it’s instructions writ in alien languages
“world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones”

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The soul
it’s being…
Left— with lingering memories

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their body—
built on—
a foundation of lies

my own, from their doubts

The house of pain

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ignorance is a bliss

euphoric

the ego indulges

in during times of stress

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enlightening

A universal mind

open to new ideas
with expanded awareness

brainstorming in the heavens
of, the seven seas overhead

why is it that death is personified
it is so when he is weakened

that’s the unmaking of the grim reaper
a befitting demise, his

mortality—
a spare rib
the quanta of
an excitable atom
shushed —
acquiesced

and during this evanescence death die...

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magic inks spill across the page
creating a rorschach image
a crazy person’s deluded vision
of their artistry that of which
others simply cannot see

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poetry is
the rememory of passed moments
inner beauty,
a narrator’s world view, and
thoughts manifest
as spoken word…
public thinking with no critique

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The earth’s ether
rebirth, uh, being born…
or, is it about forgetting who we are
and, our death is about remembering who we were

memory…
a soul’s fortè, more so
—Nostalgia

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sir, yes, sir

enlisted, signature
illegible, and unable to be read

a dreaded shot

well trained

the medic attempting to calm —
The vet,
glances at his dog tags
in search of a name.

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had to have been there
to believe it beyond belief
mourning, until sunset
GTA
5’0
wanted by the LAPD
boys in blue
and.. red
stripes & stars
white flags

popping shots off in the air

“The Marathon Continues”

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Hands move without mind

The time slips by in silence that is mine

I just try to find a sign

That says this way or that.

 

Motion drifts without body

Unrecognisable though still resembling

The fiery spark that’s dwindled

And waiting to be rekindled now or later.

 

Heart beats without soul

Too cold to move from scolding mould

That’s festered in the folds of me

...

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It rains on me tonight as it did in the morning

No exit route or home to fall in

Because nothing seems to fit

Nothing seems to satisfy

Or ease the mind ’til five

Misery’s mine until I die

Shut out and dropped from the sky

With no sight, fight or flight

Sipping dregs and having sex

There ain’t no fish in that sea

Of love nor money, the empty barrel

Is scraped once a...

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And indeed, 

the seasons will shift once again,

Yet,

that one autumn leaf, 

will hold onto the branch,

with all its might,

Awaiting the breeze,

to carry it away.

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There’s an art 
To letting go of something
You never fully held
Refilling the glass
That is your heart

Why do these thoughts
Always cut so deeply
They come in such vivid
Shades of sadness
I can barely breathe

There’s an art
To navigating 
These troubled straits
Letting go of past lives
And vanished friends

There’s art
In the way you choose
To love
And in the way you choose
...

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Dear Lord of mercy and order,

You who shaped the constellations

and placed every heart upon its rightful path—

hear me.

 

You have destined me a man,

steady as an oak,

a harbor built for my future.

In him, I find peace,

honor, and the promise of a home.

 

But another soul tempted my spirit—

a lightning in the dark,

a soul I touched only in passing.

Not min...

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It’s late, another day is gone

Sun rose in east just to set on

The horizon in the west

Life and death abreast but the rest is best

When lights are off and away

And I sleep until the next day

Only to continue my endless cycle

Relive my self-inflicted trifle

Just feel stifled so detraction

From my pain is my distraction

My existence a fraction of my desire

No sight o...

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After fighting, and ofcourse, winning,

a grave battle,

against the storm, within me,

I will, finally, sit back, and think.

Gazing at the night sky,

when I will embrace the light of moon,

I will not look back, in time, and regret,

but will surely rejoice, for the present, I am,

And if somehow I realise,

that yes, I am me,

That will be the moment,

when I will be, 

...

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I live my days in nuanced pathways

going to and from what i expect myself to do,

going back and forth within life,

a contradicting pendulum that irrevocably pulls and fulfills me.

 

at times, overwhelm pulls me and exhausts me,

but i function, like i should in this society.

but i am not a machine,

i am not...

however, i do what is expected of me.

 

sometimes, ...

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