Earth Pods

Photographer Werner Strauss has recently sent a few pictures he captured a few weeks after the AfrikaBurn festival of Kim Goodwin's wattle structures, The Earth Pods. With the photos he sent us a very moving letter expressing his gratitude for our contribution to the festival. It really touched both Kim and I to receive the words and images from Werner. 

It is the first photos we have seen with clean and clear space - no tents or costumed merrymakers in the back or foreground. 

Sun, shadows and textures perfectly captured.

Thank you Werner for this gift.

I have been penning down several bits of writing inspired by the Earth Pods but could not get anything off the ground. With the arrival of these photos something just clicked and the poem started to come together:

with hands we make things

of the earth

and for the earth

we weigh

we measure

we lift

we bend

we pull

we stretch

we hit

we weave

make nests for our creativity

and so the Earth Pods have risen

they have come to life

and stand on their own three feet

independent and strong 

slightly ruffled by the wind

but never blown down

a wee bit stirred by the onlooker's wonderment
but never collapsing

lightly rustled by questionings of what they are
but never limited by any speculation 

they be anything the sky wants them to be - 
deep ocean creatures

bustling microbes

alien spacecrafts

the sound of kissing

seeds picked from our souls

restless fertility

a tolbos tumbled by the winds

the fingerprints of the gods

nests for our wandering souls

fruits from the spheres

temples
silence

wooden syllables spelling poetry in the sky
moving filaments seen on the insides of our closed eyes

the mating dance of desert wind and sand

sssssshhhhh

listen, they are singing with

the vocal cords

of

forsaken trees

hold them in the blink of your eye

they are treasures of the earth