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Deadvlei

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for SenHai Saturday where our host
Susi asks us to write a senryu and haiku using
the image shown below as inspiration.

© NRI HIMI @ Unsplash

Haiku

Black branches reaching
no wind moves them anymore
only the light does


⌘ ⌘ ⌘


Senryu

I came for silence
and the desert gave me more
than I asked it for

NAR©2026

Nancy’s Notes: Combining the English word “dead” and the Afrikaans word “vlei” (meaning a shallow marsh or lake), we get “Deadvlei” …. a surreal white clay pan in Namibia’s Namib-Naukluft Park, famed for its 900-year-old skeletal camel thorn trees. Surrounded by towering, 300-meter-tall red sand dunes, the dark trees are preserved by the hyper-arid climate, remaining standing because they are too dry to decompose.

This is “Deadvlei” by Warsaw Pact

SenHai Saturday #61

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me unless indicated otherwise. Thank you for your consideration. NAR©2017–present.



18 thoughts on “Deadvlei”

  7. Wood is highly resistant to decay, and detritivores like fungi and bacteria require moisture to thrive. Without water, the decomposition process stops completely, leaving wood looking desiccated and powdery.

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