Goethe Scenes

Beauty Spot

It was lovely, the little spot visible on the sun on 6 June. Most of all, it was a rare sight, for whoever missed the transit of Venus this time will have to wait until 2117 for the next. Not until then can we – if we hold out that long – experience this natural spectacle again live, like Brigitte Oleschinski, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Uwe Kolbe did this time. The three poets from Germany journeyed to New Zealand at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut to be present at the event at the same place as discoverer James Cook stood in 1769: Tolaga Bay. “Transit of Venus Poetry Exchange” is the name of the project that brought the three poets together with New Zealand colleagues in the name of the morning star.