Tag: Monolith

Monolith In Monochrome

by Ebb Then Flood

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After yesterday’s flirtation with neon in Eighties Palm Regret, it’s back to basics and a return to black and white.

The subject matter is a million miles from palm fans waving in the breeze, even though the the scenes in the pictures were only metres away from each other.

Water sculpted rock – pure, solid and immovable.

The shape is as fantastical as any by an abstract sculptor, all layers and angular beauty.

I was a little awestruck actually, but strangely reassured by the rock’s transformation over time by the elements.

I’d like to think that time and adversity sculpt us all into striking and unique entities.

The Monolith Looms

by Ebb Then Flood

20181029_220516 (2)20190121_22390620181114_215452 (2)in onehunga
the monolith looms
on the hill
we all see
what is missing
as keenly
as what
is left behind
the slopes of cornwall park
rolling gentle and green
a central city country estate
shared by joggers and dog walkers
scaring sheep
avoiding bulls

– excerpt from ‘Octopus Auckland: 8 Suburbs’, poem by Karlo Mila

With these words my poet friend Karlo describes the pictured hill ,Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill as it is also known) and the surrounding Cornwall Park near the suburb of Onehunga ,Auckland. Photos are from my regular visits there.Seven other suburbs also get the treatment in her analogy of my hometown as a ‘feke'(Tongan for octopus).

Footnote ,and to clarify some of the stanza: The large pine tree that once graced the summit is gone, mortally wounded in a chainsaw attack of protest almost twenty years ago by a Maori activist. What remains is the striking obelisk in the centre frame. It was conceived in times gone by as a “memorial” to the indigenous Maori people, whom many European settlers then thought would gradually die out.

However,they, like the obelisk, are still here…