There is a stretched lilac shadow of Eriocephalus Africanus (Kapokbos) at dusk in the Cederberg. In full sun, on an Eastern Cape beach at midday, there is a Sewejaartjie placed on a white page with a sharpness so bright it hurts to look at it. On a rainy day in the Overberg, a Lachenalia flower’s shadow spills out in diffuse blues and greens.

On a stoepie in Cape Town my friends and I gather early in the morning and we read our favourite poems. I call it gediggie oggend.

Just like the Kapokbos, the sewejaartjie and the Lachenalia have all left their shadow on the lives of the people they know. Fleeting perhaps for some, but etched into memory for others. 

At Gediggie Oggend you choose a poem you are drawn to. It is listening to soft morning voices read collections of words that other people wrote.

It is this relating to someone unknown that feels like someone weaved together all the shadows that fall between dawn and dusk and dusk and dawn.

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