Raked

Baling of cut grass recommenced at our Tūmai farm park today – see my Blip from a couple of days back about how the harvesting of communal ground operates.

Today I used an Intentional Camera Movement to accentuate the sweep of raked lines of cut grass laid out on the soft hillside.  A series of similar images called "Ricked" are posted today on my secondary account Ecoshutterbug2.

The images bring to mind a poem called ‘Papa-Tu-A-Nuku’ by Hone Tuwhare, one of New Zealand’s most famous Māori poets. ‘Paptuanuku’ is the Māori word for “Earth Mother”.  The poem goes:
 
Papa-Tu-A-Nuku
(Earth Mother)
We are stroking, caressing the spine of the land.
We are massaging the ricked back of the land
with our sore but ever-loving feet:
hell, she loves it!
Squirming, the land wriggles in delight.
We love her.