SEEING NIKKI - A short docu-poetry Photography Film and Poem

My project 'Nature Persists' project has given me so much joy over the last three years.I have made photography which has inspire short poetry docufilms. (See below.).My poetic lens for photography has improved on my mobile and I am excited about the new digital SLR I'm saving up for.

In seeking where nature persists, I stumble over overt efforts of synergy instigated by humanity's newly created role in the ecology of the planet. I say newly when I should say revisited. More on that later. #TheLoveOfTheHolocene

To me, part of this role is to cultivate synergistic moments in city locations where marks made by humans on the earth storytells of where and how we recognised the damage we have done to the earth. This will include the creeping impacts of constantly building on land borrowed. The natural world is impacted detrimentally and our well-being, in the long term, is weakened. But this story, although very real, feels like an old narrative, and we are seeing the work of policy change makers everywhere. Have an appreciative eye for it is a step towards having a creative eye for it.

Biotechure

"I gasped when I turned a corner at Elephant and Castle and saw this brilliant living piece of green, life giving art. What is good for soul besides the visual of this wall is the scent.  Lemon Thyme and Rosemary are a part of this wall. The layering invites us to observe the shape and journey of this design. Wavy lines made by Long Grass, the thyme and the purple Heuchera soften the abstract picture made."

This is an extract from a longer journaling piece written on the Nature Persists website. Read the full piece HERE

I'm writing today because this living wall asked me to look at texture made intentionally and inadvertently by the very nature of our touch on this earth. Our imprint isn't indelible. Many civilisations have fallen. My quest is to witness and journal the embedding of our creativity as we make our habitats and creat civic systems that bring water to homes, for example, that creates concrete pavements and walk way to journey on and build with materials that decay.

While this wall continues to inspire me, this short photography film journals one day of walking and observing in London

This poem is an extract from a film entitled Textures In Natural Urbanity which is made up from a series of short docu-poetry photography films. It is a poem in response to a particular poetic lens I have been evolving into which feels like a wonderful development of my spiritual as well as my creative practice as a writer and educator. My connection to the earth is getting deeper and I am grateful for this.

Here is Seeing Nikki Image

Credit: All photography and film production by Zena Edwards 2026©

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeSRtUcukDo

SEEING NIKKI

Decay inhabits a city

Deterioration emerges, crackles as it creeps

to surface, a new face

Deconstructs time before our very eyes

Deliniates childhoods and champions changing opinions

Everything changes

An abandoned pub has a tongue

An archeological language, simple 

and complex lives live in the walls 

and rafters, the glossed red brick

layers of white and evergreen paint peeling

picked at and curled back by the fingers of progress

and relentless sunny days beating down

dirt and grit thrown up by passing traffic

a migrant settlers daughter sees

a mentor in the crag of crumbling concrete

a mudcloth canvas made by 

discarded gum and moss and parkay grey

a trains hums along the Pipe Line now, steam 

built this city, the slow incessant press 

of coal heat burns out eventually

happy to be cooled by industrial air-con beasts

that appall the aesthetic, dismay the eye

but made pretty by a graffiti artist’s tie to make art

wherever necessary, speaking to many

and the parks paths can be dark

made well lit by petitions and metaphors for light 

while we struggle to find our our way

some architecture wears resilience well

a unique resilience speaking of crafts-personship 

where it was valued to calculate the earth 

to water ratio mix for making these long standing bricks - aeration, porosity

to make policy and a living wall 

out of herb plants and maths

out of the science of 30 years from now

out of tech and a child’s hot forehead

out of a need to say I did do something good back then

to contribute, to say “they did something right and good”

that is a story that doesn’t decay

travels from mouth to mouth

settles as hope, as layers of skyline

and as textures of natural urbanity

Bpoem Written and performer by Zena Edwards

– Zena