I'll give a fairly big hint. There's two missing flames in the inner ring. Beyond that, the way things are encoded is a mystery. But that should be enough, if you can reason with the theme of the poem, to catch up with what he's likely talking about.
freenode ##paintingsolvers for the interested. we have a handful of cicada solvers chatting about it.
Sini is not only on the right track but is going to likely solve it by actually grouping together.
Forget about the prize, Work together for the experience.
Whatever comes, comes, you could spend forever trying to solve it by yourself or contribute now.