Poems
-
Sunrise
Sunrise erupts in bloody streaks. Veins of vermillion pulse across the shoulders of the sky. Grip the horizon in a fierce embrace. 25 January 2020 Photo description: Fingers of flaming cloud stretch over Durban harbour at dawn. Lights make a dotted line through the darkened buildings beside the dock. The masts of 100 small yachts spike the water like black reeds. On the left, unlit apartment blocks breach the skyline.
-
Horizon
Instinctual stretch Paraphrasing the parallels Sand, ocean, sky Standing close enough To inhale the infinite. February 2020 Photo description: A thin band of ocean divides a rectangle of pale beach from a rectangle of powder blue sky. Sand waves ripple and puffs of cloud drift by. On the horizon stands a figure, a boy aged 15, facing the sea. He wears a wide brimmed hat, white t-shirt and navy shorts. His arms are outstretched like a bird about to fly.
-
Weighted
Weighted reverences the layers of human history held in stone and water. Walking barefoot on the Cobb – the curved harbour wall at Lyme Regis, Dorset, England – opens ancestral conversations.
-
Longing
Let go the longing drizzled into untrod earth. Lest the vision of what will come Obscure the beauty of now June 2020 Photo description: Footprints of an Egyptian goose lead across an undulating estuary shore to converge with ripples of sand, contoured by the tide. Silver-blue water laps at the top-left of the image. A casuarina twig lies in the foreground, a red stone and a pale gold leaf opposite.
-
Stone
We stand on our past Trample it Rarely look it in the face Until it smothers us. August 2017 Photo description: Four sculptures of heads carved from sandstone pillars, with trees in the background, branches stretched across a patch of cloudy blue sky. Three of the heads face each other, eyes closed, expressions serene, inclined towards a smaller stone head between them. Photo: National Museum of Kenya Nairobi Botanic Gardens, June 2017
-
Tethered
Tethered We become By nature By design By habit. January 2020 Photo description: Mooring ropes hang slackly into still, green-blue water. The ropes, garlanded with weed, are reflected on the surface, with patchy cloud, creating curved, triangular patterns. The harbour, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England.
-
Leafprint
Secret light of plants Pathways connecting life Osmotic breath Source, resource, coursing Through all our veins. February 2020 Photo description: The underside of a pawpaw leaf about 60 cms wide, spread like a green parasol against the Durban summer sky. The veins are illuminated like yellow latticework across the 7 palmate lobes.
-
Heartrest
Heartrest Heartrest in the curve of a broken shell and the vanishing point of beach and ocean. January 2020 Photo description: The weathered skeleton of an uprooted casuarina tree lies across golden sand. In the background, a line of pale dunes and a mound of natural forest abut the estuary mouth. A distant line of surf breaks beneath a vast blue sky, streaked with feathery cloud. Photo: Umtamvuna estuary 12 January 2020
-
Jade vine
Dusk invites Tumescent tongues To delve for nectar Seducing the jade vine Till waxy flowers droop Their heads, Anoint their pollinator The bat, who bears unseen A crown of golden grain Message of life Between generations. Note: The jade vine reproduces through chiropterophily, that is pollination by bats. Nectar bats are attracted to flowers with luminous petals, large blossoms, fruity aromas, and lots of nectar. They have long tongues and can hover like hummingbirds. The bats poke their tongues in for nectar, causing the flowers to tip down and drop pollen on the bats’ heads. Photo description: A close-up of the waxy bright blue-green, scoop-shaped flowers of the jade vine,…
-
From the earth
Ages are cradled here In my unheld hand Seed, shell, stone Scratching my soles My heart needed To smell soil again. 9 August 2020 Photo description: Fingers outstretched from a hand loosely clutching dry, crumbly soil that is full of decomposing organic matter. A sprinkle of late afternoon sunlight catches a few specks of earth.
