Dunedin group Tight Lines has given a "creative response'' to the mining proposal in its new exhibition, "Fossils of Foulden Maar'' at the Dunedin City Library.
Foulden Maar, once a lake, contains fossils which date back to a volcanic eruption 23million years ago.
Australian company Plaman Resources wants to expand an existing diatomite mine to take in all of the maar, near Middlemarch.
Poet Jonathan Cweorth said the group wrote new poems inspired by its dismay at the proposal.
"We sometimes use different prompts in our poetry group to inspire us to write a poem for the next meeting.''
Fellow poet Joan Anderson said the exhibition was a protest and a plea to the public to think deeper about preserving an environment which was becoming harder to protect.
As well as Mr Cweorth and Ms Anderson, the other contributors are: Claire Arthur, Janet Carrington, Cynthia Greensill, Kirstie McKinnon and Iona Winter.
The poems are accompanied by photographs of the maar by Jo Robertson, and original artworks of fossils found at the maar by Vivienne J. Robertson.
The exhibition runs until July 14.
- FISI-BELLE CARRASCO-REX
